Not as happy as I thought I would be at this point... 7/13/09

Well, all WAS going swimmingly with the girls. After three weeks, I didn't see the progress that I had expected to see though. On three of the four hives, they had only just started building comb in the upper deep.

Hive #1 was bleak on the second deep, and thriving on the bottom. Found eggs, didn't hang around to find the queen.

Hive #2 was a bit sad too - it seemed like they were at a standstill having two unused frames on the lower deep as well. There were eggs, brood, etc. It was good to see, but still seemed kind of slow.

Hive #3 had the bottom deep filled to the brim with larvae, eggs, brood, honey, etc. Nothing on the upper deep. It was great - then I got stung... hurt for three seconds then I felt bad for the brave little gal that made the ultimate sacrifice for her queen. I assured all of them that I was here to help them, make sure all was well. That and a bit of smoke worked just fine. But I got out fast when I saw the eggs (the sting had nothing to do with it...ok...I had to check it out didn't I?) The wild thing was that even after I closed up the hive, I looked at the stinger and it was throbbing - still pulsing poison out into my glove.

Hive #4 was the big surprise! One of the frames was full of honey, the others were a combo of brood and honey but four of the 10 frames on the second deep are full of bees working away! Thank goodness!!! I think this will be the one that will give us the honey this year. The others seem to be lacking a bit. Frames filled with honey are HEAVY. I was very excited. Oddly enough, this was the only hive that had a head start with the syrup in the hive top feeder. None of the other hives even used theirs. I thought I would give it another go and make another round of syrup and get it on there this week. See what happens.

Have a great week and I'll be back in a few with an update once I get the syrup back on the hives and some nummies in the hive top feeders.