More bee <3

Sunrise around 5:30 on Thursday May 25th. Always a good day when you see the sunrise and sunset. Hot, humid morning at Gardens of Eagen, hence the use of smoke to calm the bees, otherwise it is very rarely used. Wonderful brood pattern, this is an excellent queen. Bees soon after opening and closing the hive. Bee larve, more specifically queen bee larve. This was in a swarm queen cell with royal jelly. Bee hives at Forestville, where bees go when they go to heaven. Bees on a top hive cover and can you spot the queen with the green dot on her back? Queen cell as previously mentioned. We look for these on the bottom of the frames and remove them so the bees aren't making they're own queen and swarm. Bottom of a deep super box and you can see the bottom of all frames at once rather than taking them out one at a time. Brian, owner/beekeeper at Ames farms, working in a hive under an Oak tree in Forestville. The view I have to put up with when I'm with the bees. This happens to be Forestville state park that this property boarders. Beautiful fresh made comb. Another gorgeous view. Some of the other animals on the property. A fresh spring on the Forestville property. Oldest bridge in Minnesota in historic Forestville.

I smell like...

bees and stink like sweat. All in a good days works. Brian & I were able to add supers (where bees store honey in the summer) to many hives at 4-5 locations. In the next few weeks we'll be harvesting the first honey of this year :) Sadly some bee fossils on the top of the inner hive cover. Interesting to look at though Pollen in ziplocks collected from a few hives within 50 feet of each other. Color changes with what flowers are available. Tastes sweet and turns to powder in your mouth. Excellent vitamin supplement. Watching a strong hive and the flight pattern to and from is like watching a washing machine. Very hypnotic and hard to keep track of just one thing. Wax and bees on the inner cover of the hive. Interesting to see the new (almost white) wax compared to the old. White wax is a signal they are ready to make honey if they aren't already. Tops of the frames also have white wax on them. Mostly likely honey in here. :) New comb with nice amount of honey. Hopefully be harvesting it in the next few weeks. Here you can see brood cells/baby bees (capped cells) with 3 ready to hatch (uncapped and look white) Bees hanging out at the front of their house. Typical 4 hives to a pallet and these have 2 supers (smaller boxes on top for honey collection) so they are kinda tall. Lower part of the hive for the queen, drones and workers to help. Interesting how calm and grouped they are. Beautiful new wax the bees make with the sun shining through. Brian holding it up for me. This is the kinda of stuff I see when I go to work with the bees. A gorgeous field of clover!!

I'm in LOVE....

with a whole lotta bees!!! Yesterday I got the privledge to work with Brian from Ames Farms for the day. We checked on some queen production, various other hives and seperated others. Below are a few photos I took throughout the day. More to follow as I'll be working with him again soon!!