Box on, box off...

The girls are chugging right along.

I went to visit them on Monday to add a new box to the hive so they'd have plenty of room to grow. I'm paranoid that they'll get too crowded and swarm when I'm not there to catch them. While I was there, I decided to do another semi-full inspection. I saw lots of eggs up in the top box, but only on about 3 of the 10 frames. Down in the middle box, it was the same deal... very few frames of eggs and brood relative to the number of frames, and there were many, many frames that were completely empty. No comb, no bees, no nothing. I wonder when they'll finally fill out those outer frames? They really need to do it because they're going to need to fill them with pollen and honey.  As it is, all the "nectar" they have is from the sugar water I was giving them. Yeah, ok, girls, no more sugar water for you. You're big enough now to go get real nectar from nature like you're supposed to.

I wasn't wearing any veil or gloves, so I was working pretty slowly to avoid agitating everybody. However, by the time I got down into the bottom box, they were pretty much done with me poking around in their house and they started to come after me. I got head butted a couple times and had to step away for a second. Heaven forbid I put on gloves... I was trying to get the frames back in the right spot, and they didn't like that either and one of them got me on the tip of the thumb. I scraped the stinger out with the hive tool and then blew some smoke over it to mask the "KILL THE INTRUDER, NOW!" pheromone they were giving off.   It didn't work. The initial sting isn't so bad, but then it's like eating a hot pepper...it builds up, and for about 20 seconds it pretty burn-y. Then another Kamikaze Ophelia raced out and got me in the knee. Was that really necessary? Little bit--... oh, wait, these are my sweet little bees I'm talking about.

The next night, at bee club, I explained my "skinny" brood and empty comb situation to a couple seasoned beeks. (one of which was my neighbor, to whom I haven't talked since the big drama night of their arrival.) They told me that as long as I keep adding boxes, they'll keep building up, and that I have to take that extra box off and make them fill out the rest of that foundation. They assured me they won't swarm any time soon, and that I really don't want to have a hive 10 boxes high with no honey in it. Ok, fine, I'll take off the box.

Wednesday evening, after my hair appointment, I ran down there to take care of it. Of course it was pouring rain the whole way, so much so that my AWD car was hydroplaning. Yeesh. The girls sure aren't going to like this.  Fortunately, it stopped by the time I got there, and everybody was in a good mood. I (suited up this time) took off the extra story, put the roof back on and sat back for a little Bee TV.

The workers were all coming back from the field, each one approaching at the same angle.  There was a bee on the front porch sounding the "we live here"  buzz so all the returnees could make instrument landings.

Now I REALLY have to let them bee for awhile.  If they were in my own backyard, I'd be sitting out there all the time, certainly to the detriment of my social life and laundry chores. It's hard to stay away from them for so long, so when I do see them, I want to open everything up and see what's going on. The bee teacher says this is normal for beginners. By next year we'll have enough faith in our girls to leave them alone.

Here's a little sample of the Real Housewives of Maud County...