Drawing wax and building wonky comb.
Tuesday, April 27th was my first inspection of Dandelion after installing the package on April 15th. It was cloudy, 52 degrees and probably much too windy to do an inspection normally. Despite the weather, the girls were still bringing in lots of orange pollen. I wanted to do a quick check to see if the queen was alive and laying. These bees consumed 3 quarts of syrup in 12 days. This is much more than my other new hives who have taken less than a qt.
When I opened up the hive the bees were actively drawing wax and building comb. I had to disturb the festooning and pull the bees apart to get the frames out. As you can see they were very busy. Four frames were almost finished and completely covered in bees.
Underneath the bees, one frame was full of capped brood and another had eggs and larvae. The queen was laying well with a good pattern. This frame had the queen and lots of eggs.
The bees were drawing out an additional frame with wonky comb resembling the shape of queen cells. Hopefully they will fix this as they continue to finish drawing wax.
After closing up the hive, a field bee dropped by to say hello. Look at all the pollen on her face! She is a just a cutie!
It is probably dandelion pollen she is carrying all over her – how fitting! What a perfect way to end my inspection of Dandelion hive.
For more information about this hive please visit Dandelion Hive.