We checked our beehives located in Odin this week. We're pleased to say they're doing very, very well - we were even able to put a honey super on one hive. This is a huge accomplishment for bees that were purchased this spring as nucs.
The brown box comes from one of our hives here at home. I took frames from one of our hives to split it into a new hive. Its boiling with bees, but we couldn't find a queen. The bees had created two queen cells when we last checked, but it doesn't look like they "took". Its possible the queen who first came out (and the first to come out kills the other) was killed on her mating flight. We will purchase a queen and put her into the hive. There's still some capped brood so that there will be young bees to do the duties needed inside the hive. Cross your fingers that this hive takes off!
These are my bees, says the Lord
I will make them to rise up
Out of the darkness, and into the morning sun
They will, unerringly,
Find every flower and the goodness I have put in it,
The tastes and colors of the soul,
Gather that sweetness,
And bring it home.
by Lee van Laer, "Parabola Magazine"
Beehive update: After talking with a much more experienced beekeeper than I, I checked this hive today to see if I could put a frame with eggs in it to get the bees to make another queen. Imagine my surprise when I found a frame with 15 capped queen cells on it! Research tells me that I may not get the best queen out of this hive because the bees may have created a queen from an older larvae and she'll have smaller ovaries, but at this point I'm glad to see progress towards getting a queen!
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