Sunday, July 3, 2011

All the buzz

honey bees in hiveThis morning was my first solo hive inspection. Little desperately wanted to help but alas we only have one bee suit. Note to self: find two additional bee suits.

Things appear to be going swimmingly in the hive. I saw the queen again - yay! And there are larvae and what I think are capped brood in the cells. The hive has yet to expand and build comb on the additional frames in the super. Hopefully the expansion will begin once this brood hatches.

As I sit and watch the hive it is quite active. Bees coming and going; legs laced with pollen on reentry. My garden, so slow to arrive this year, is close to full bloom. Once the shasta daisies and lavender pop we'll have a plethora of local pollen and nectar.

Today I'm in a puttering mood. All I really want to do is bake cupcakes and transplant tomatoes and maybe have a glass of wine on the porch. But, like it or not, I'm due back at work in a few hours. Fortunately it is an eight-hour shift (the benefit of working a holiday weekend) rather than a longer twelve hour shift. And then, tomorrow, I have the day off. I can't tell you the last time I didn't work on the 4th of July.

And so now I'm off to make a quick batch of cupcakes and brine some ribs before heading back to work.

I hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

1 comment:

Anonyvox said...

Oh, I would really love to have bees someday. I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to do the actual keeping, but it would be so cool to have enough land that I could have a hive or two out there and reap the benefits of some home-grown honey!