Beekeeping: Opened the Hive Today (May 29, 2010)

I opened the beehive today for the first time this year. I currently have two deep hive bodies on as brood chambers and there are three medium supers on top. I cleared an ant colony out of the bottom of the hive and took everything apart just to see how the bees were doing.

The brood chambers are jammed with bees and so heavy they are very hard to lift. The supers have little in them at the moment, but the bees are beginning to store nectar there--and it's only late May. Harvest this year is likely to be substantial. Everything appears to be in good shape. The photo shows bees cleaning up honey that was in cells broken when I pulled the first super off of the queen excluder.

Beekeeping: Opened the Hive Today (June 15, 2009)

I opened the hive today for the first time this season. Even after the huge swarm that left a few weeks back, the place is humming with activity and packed with bees--and honey! It looks like two full shallow supers are nearly full of capped honey (see photo). It will be nice to have a supply again after having lost the bees two seasons ago. There are still many flowers in bloom and there is plenty of nectar around, so I expect them to quickly fill the third super I added today.