Camping and Hive opening

Yes, we did actually go camping. It wasn't fabulous weather (it was cold and windy and a bit wet), and my older daughter accidentally ran over her younger sister with a very large toy truck racing down the hill, but we had a blast. My friend Karen's youngest daughter turned 2 and we had a party for her (there were three families). I think that campground birthdays are the best! We had one for my daughter last summer in NH. People you don't know hear the singing and join in, and the kids get to run around with their color coded glowsticks at night among the fireflies (OK, so it was too cold this time for fireflies, but you get the idea. It's very bohemian. I love it). Our next trip isn't scheduled until July, and already I can't wait.

On to the bees....I'm opening the hive today. I opened up the outer cover on Sunday to discover that for Mother's Day, the girls had built me...erm...a Close Encounters Sculpture? A Bridge to Nowhere? A pantry? I don't know what they think it is, but we humans call it "burr comb" and we remove it because it can cause problems. They built upwards off the foundations and ended it right smack in front of the syrup jar. Actually it was ATTACHED to the jar, but the attachment broke when I had to refill the syrup. It's as though they don't want to move more than a few inches from syrup to comb. So these are my goals:

1. Light the smoker successfully (seriously, I am a failure at pyromania; the only time I have successfully lit it for a good long burn was before I got the bees)
2. Clean up the sculpture thingie (I should listen to see if they're buzzing A-B-G-G-D)
3. Check for larva, pupa, or eggs (collectively this is called "brood"), which means both that the queen is alive and well and working like a...well, a queen bee (dogs have nothing on her, she can produce up to 1500 eggs a day for several years, yikes!).
4. Do a count of what we've got in the frames (pollen, honey, brood) and determine if we need to put on the second hive bottom (which would be cool, because once you fill the two bottoms you start to get to keep the honey from anything you put on top!).
5. Document with the camera

I'll try to post later (or soon) with pictures!