Bee Log – Day 42
By Michelle | June 24th, 2012 | Category: Beekeeping, Food | No Comments »Well, I might as well get it over with and tell you: my sting-free streak is over. I was getting a little too cocky with a loose fitting blouse over my jeans – and one of the bees found my a nice “tender” (ahem) patch of belly to commit hari-kari on. It actually did not hurt that much (my pride stung more).
The hive looks good – lots of activity at the entrance and a settled hum inside. I am a little worried that the bees are still not building out that quickly and think I am going to go back to feeding them some to kick-start things. From all I’ve read, in the first year, the key to surviving the winter is making sure that they have enough stores and at this rate, I’m not sure they’re far enough along. Feeding them sugar water is something I’ve hesitated to do beyond the first couple weeks because there is forage out there and I think ultimately they’re healthier if they have nectar and not “reconstituted” cane sap.
However, it seems like they really need a glut of sugar coming in to need to build up capacity to store it quickly, so I’ll create that for a while and hopefully get them building.
I’ve finally managed to get some pictures.
Bees coming and going at the entrance...
Edge of fresh honeycomb
- Better shot of propolis
Bees stick everything together in their hive with sticky stuff called propolis
Close-up bees