Brad's inspection 06/17

Brad is another friend we met in bee school. He actually lives two minutes from my house. I've not been able to catch up with him since he hived his first beehive, a nuc. I was very eager to see how his hives were coming along. They seem to be coming along quite nicely, although Brad reports that his nuc can be rather ill tempered compared to his package bees.

Here's a nifty dark drone we spotted alongside the ladies. Aren't they just so different in size and shape from the girls? This one was very striking with his dark bands.
Because the nuc came with existing frames, he's got five frames in his bottom chamber that are more weathered than any of the package frames. Here's a good picture of some propolis, that gluey tarlike stuff that the bees like to paste everywhere to fill cracks and spaces:


Here's another frame with a good pattern. Can you tell this frame is a new one? Isn't it amazing, the difference between this one and the one above it?


This section of comb was hanging from the bottom of the frame. We both kind of said, "What is THAT?!"


I think the answer is that it's drone comb, but just the fact that it's below the frame makes me a little nervous. That's where the bees build any supercedure cells (as in new queens).

Here's a closeup of that weird chunk. See the larva they are just about to cap?


Here's a great closeup of the larva. We believe they're drone larva.



His bees were making me laugh, because even when the cover came off, they were clambering to get into the little hole on the inner cover. Seriously, girls, you can use the bottom OR the top, it's much easier!!