This title is in reference to a downright unhelpful note that D-rod left me when I missed a staff meeting. The note, given to me 2 days after the meeting, said: "There are some bees. I don't know where." We joke about this note LOTS.
But. Here at the farm we know where the bees are... on the porch of the Resource Center in 3 hives! Collectively we have 8 pounds of bees (of the Russian variety) in the hives.
Inside each hive there is a queen with a yellow spot to label her.
The hives get checked by Tom about every two weeks to make sure that the bees have enough space and aren't forming queen cells. If a new queen hatches (it take 16 days for that to happen), half of the hive will swarm and leave to find a new home, which beekeepers don't want.
Anyway, today I got to help check the hives. We wore white shirts because color will agitate the bees, and we used the smoker to calm the hive. We took out each frame and checked to see where the queen was, and pinched off a forming queen cell when we found it.
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| A worker bee with orange pollen on its legs-- it's from dandelions. |
I collected a bunch of dead workers and drones to show the next field trip so the kids can get pumped on bees.
We've been sitting next to the hives at lunch and snacking on the pollen-- I recommend it!
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