14" of Snow!

It started about 2:00 yesterday and snowed about 1 inch an hour all afternoon, evening, and night. I measured at 11:00 a.m. and it was still 14 inches even though the temperature rose above freezing. On this photo, you can see my dog, Kookie, in the middle coming back up our driveway. She loves it.



It looks like more than 14" on top the bee hive. We cleaned the front opening so that there was ventilation. The bees will cluster with the queen in the center. The worker bees take turns being on the outside (just like in March of the Penguins).



I walked down the driveway (dog in front) in the ruts Steve created with the UTV. He still got stuck in a couple of places--no way our 4WDs will make it out anytime soon. Our road isn't plowed and Interstate 81 is still closed. The governor declared most of Virginia a disaster with the National Guard helping stranded motorists on the interstates.

We had to cancel our trip to the Grand Canyon--we can't get to the Charlotte Airport. But, I guess we will have a white Christmas! And, this makes our dog very happy.


We stocked the feeders this morning with the downy woodpecker already taking big bites out of the suet cake. I noticed so many dark-eyed juncos on the ground--now I know why they are often called snowbirds.

Hive Inspection

These photos were taken late this morning during a hive inspection. Details and particulars are at the end of this post.


4th Frame
Here you can see the cells with pollen and sugar and the two capped cells I was concerned about. The next photo shows the cells close up.


4th Frame (Click on photo to enlarge to see detail)

When I look at this frame on the photograph, there appears to be tiny eggs in some of the cells. I hope you can see them--cells to the lower left. What are the two capped cells, queen or drone? Scroll down to see more photographs.


4th Frame

Once again to the lower left, I think I see eggs. Click on the image to see an enlarged version where you should be able to see what I'm talking about. I guess my camera sees better than I can because I really didn't think there were any when I looked closely.


4th Frame--Close up

The comb is built way up here, maybe 1" or more where the two capped cells are.



4th Frame--Opposite Side.

Here the opposite side shows another capped cell. There are no more capped cells on any of the other frames.

Hive Setup April 17, 2009

This photo was taken maybe 5 minutes after I put the hive back together. The bees had calmed down a lot. They were swirling all around me when I put smoke or used the brush on them.

I put another medium super on top on Monday April 13 as I learned from another beekeeper that when using mediums, you need to put two rather than one or else they get too crowded. When I just had one and then the top medium with the top feeder, bees were staying in the top, even on a cold night. The second medium has 8 frames with wired foundation but the bees haven't drawn it out yet.

History of My English Hive:

April 3: installation of package of bees and queen in plastic cage (which wasn't in the package).
April 6: empty queen cage removed
April 9: hive inspection didn't got too well since I didn't get the bees off the 2 center frames. 4 Frames were drawn out and pollen and sugar syrup were seen in cells.