I fed the bees again yesterday. I gave them another 10 lbs of sugar syrup and if their appetite is like last week, they have probably eaten a third of it already. Well not eaten really. They are using the sugar to build comb in the new hive and to raise brood in the other two. I hope the new queen is now starting to lay eggs.

forsythia in full bloom

A bee collecting nectar and pollen on a boxwood bush

The forsythia is beautiful this year and there is a large bush right next to the bees, but they don’t seem to like it. I have never seen a bee on the flowers. I have seen some on the boxwood bushes, but oddly not often. When I have seen them, they are collecting a lot of pollen, so why some days don’t I see any. Strange.

I was just out in the garden weeding the strawberry patch and one bee must have decided that I was a bear and was trying to chase me away. Being the good beekeeper that I am I ran away – not because I am afraid of bees, but because I am respectful of all my children and I didn’t want her to give up her life for no reason. OK, and because I really prefer not being stung to being stung. I looked at my attire and realized that I was wearing very dark clothes and was probably sweating a bit. After a short break to change into a white t-shirt, I resumed weeding without incident. The strawberry plants look great, by the way.

You probably can’t tell but I am very excited about the bees this year because I plan to harvest honey. This will be a new and sticky experience. It is usually done around July or August. I will rent the extractor that the club has. I was recently made aware of the possibility of foundation fill of honey coming out of their frames when they are spun in the extractor. I wasn’t too worried until yesterday when one of the new frames of foundation popped out of the bottom part of the frame. I also didn’t know about using wire to hold the foundation in the frames until the demonstration at the January class this year. We didn’t see that at last year’s frame building class. I suppose it isn’t a problem with the plastic foundation. I think I have some plastic as well as some natural beeswax foundation for the honey supers. I will probably use the plastic for now.