Today I inspected our bees on one of the first sunny days of the season.  It’s been a few weeks since using Miteaway and since then the days have mostly been rainy and cold.  Thankfully, the bees really don’t care what we do for the most part, and the cycle of hive life continues.

After suiting up and putting on veil and gloves, I lit the smoker and let it get to a nice, thick white blaze.  Currently the hive has 2 brood chambers (deeps) and a honey super on it (medium).  The very top, which is laid out on the foreground, is a feeder.

The honey super frames weren’t well-developed, but there is some capped honey present!  We’ll probably be taking the capped sections for comb treats.  The wax from the cappings (the extremely white stuff) is usually harvested for beeswax and turned into candles, soaps, etc.

The top brood chamber has several frames which are completely filled with honey (probably what Laline Paull refers to as “The Treasury” in her novel The Bees).  This is a sign of winter preparation – they’ll eat all of this honey to survive.  Though it’s tempting to harvest from these frames, they’re actually all filled with pupal bits and mites.

Finally a closeup of muh bees!  Only one tried to sting me this time.  That’s what we consider an exceptionally gentle hive.