Monday, February 15, 2010

First Day of the Beekeeping Year

Happy New Year! This year the beginning of the beekeeper's calendar coincided with the Chinese Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day. Furthermore, it was a sunny 15 Degrees Celsius in Vancouver. Time to clean up the back porch to get ready to grow seedlings!

We opened up the hive and found some mold had formed on the top, so we scraped it off and took out one frame all together and replaced it with another. We put on a pollen patty I had just defrosted and a jar of sugar water. The bees were very curious--landing on us and flying into the house as soon as I opened the door. I had to perform three rescue missions. You can see where they landed on J's beekeeping suit below. There were young bees practicing their orientation flights in front of their hives and others bringing in bright yellow crocus pollen and white/light yellow pollen from cherry blossoms.

Behold, the happy beekeeper!

No comments:

Post a Comment