On Friday, June 19th, we expanded Hive 10 in our apiary! Below is the layout of our hives, so that you may see where we were working in the apiary. Hive 10 is near the top right-hand corner!
We posed for a picture…
Photographed from left to right: Junior Beekeeper Liam, Researcher Ryan, and Senior Beekeeper Mehreen.
Then got right to work!
Ryan, Liam, Jonah, and Mehreen check the hive.
This photo encompasses the entirety of our apiary, except for our classroom observation hive:
Hive 10 was looking pretty good, especially this frame, which boasts honey, brood, and pollen!
Mehreen checking out (and posing with) a frame:
Upon inspection, the frame below has both worker bee brood cells and drone brood cells!
You can see the incoming drone brood cell in the upper left hand corner of this picture, with worker bee brood cells spaced throughout the frame.
This was one of the first times that Jonah, a researcher in our lab, had come up onto the roof, so Mehreen pointed out aspects of frames for him:
Ryan takes a closer look at a frame.
Here you can see that our bees have been collecting a lot of pollen – and from several sources, based on the various pollen colorations!
Look at all that pollen!
Jonah is about to place the new super, in order to officiate the hive expansion!
We are proud to announce that Hive 10 has been expanded!!
But our job hasn’t been completed just yet!
We are conducting Varroa destructor mite checks, and must place petroleum jelly-covered boards in the bottom of the hives; here, Liam demonstrates:
This day proved to be very interesting for those of us who had never see mite boards, an expansion, or even the roof, before!
And the bees in Hive 10 seemed to enjoy their new space, to boot!
Until next time!
-Gabrielle
The brood pattern looks a bit spotty, I wonder if they will supersede the queen soon.