Guess what?

BEE BUTT!

I checked the bugs last weekend, but didn't blog about it. Everything was good. Really good. When in installed our new queen Charmaine, I also started mite treatment. I treated for 6 weeks and it apparently did the job. The hive is noticeably more healthy overall. The girls are calm and happy.

I checked again today since the weather is pretty nice after this morning's rain and it's dried up a bit. It's been really iffy on the weekends, either cold or rainy, and I feel compelled to inspect whenever I'm home, it's dry out, and not cold.

Our queen Charmaine has been with us for almost 9 weeks now and is still going strong. She is so busy, and the hive population is really growing again after my previous queen problems.

The brood looks fantastic. One frame of brood is almost completely full front and back, and the brood nest extends over 4 frames. There are 4500 cells on one side of a frame, so I estimate there are maybe 20,000 baby bees in various stages.

The girls are busy too. Last weekend, I saw that they had been building comb in areas they're not supposed to, such as in the hole in the hive top and up into the feeder. All 10 frames in the main hive body are full or mostly full, 4 of them are full of brood front and back, and they're building comb wherever they can. They need more room so I added another box, doubling their space. With Florida's mild winter, it's pretty much already spring for these girls and they're busy. If things continue this way, I'll be able to add the honey super in a few weeks once the flowers start blooming again and they are bringing in lots of nectar. And you know what that means... honey for me!

But for now, the honey is all theirs.

I'm still supplementing them with sugar syrup in case they're not finding enough nectar. I did give them a pollen patty last weekend, but today I see that they're having no problem finding pollen. This is likely mostly maple pollen which is blooming right now in North Florida.

I added the second box just last weekend, and this is what they've done in a week. It's so fascinating that they can produce comb so quickly! This frame has comb on the front and back, and there are smaller patches of comb on some of the other frames. How fast they build comb tells me if they are finding all the resources they need. I'm still a newbee, but I think they're doing just fine. But I've also learned that things can change quickly, so I am still vigilant.

Oh, we also have a new friend! He (maybe she?) evidently loves to hang out in the top of the hive, he's been there almost every time I open it. It's cool though, he won't hurt the bees and he eats ants and other pests that might harm the hive. So he gets to stay, and he gets a name. This is Lenny, the guard lizard. Imagine him wearing a tiny little spiked collar. 🐝