It's a gorgeous 75º Sunday here in North Florida and the bugs are busy foraging, so I of course bothered them today. Pierre sometimes tries to tell me to leave them alone for a while. But I explained that problems can happen fast in a managed hive. Checking the hive every 7-10 days is important if I'm going to catch a problem and fix it before it gets out of hand. You know, like a disappearing queen. So I'm doing it today.

Y'all, the girls are so super chill right now, like more chill than I've ever experienced them. I didn't even wear gloves. I probably didn't even need my jacket and veil, but I'm not crazy. I still have not gotten stung, and I'm in no rush for that to happen. No gloves was a big enough step for me today. But they are so happy and relaxed, I even had them on my naked hands a few times and they just sat there looking pretty and enjoying the weather. We were one with each other.

I pulled a center frame and found Freddie right away, doing what she does. There are many eggs and larvae in various stages. Below in the cells, you see baby bees growing. Baby bees are not as cute as you'd hope. They're just not, but I love them anyway. These are newly hatched larvae. These are 3-4 days old. Also, I'd like to note that the larvae does not wiggle and squirm. They're pretty much completely motionless. Which is awesome because a bunch of wiggly wormy looking things would quite frankly, gross me out. I do not like wormy things.

Here, the larvae have gotten much bigger and fatter on their diet of honey and pollen. Nurse bees will feed them nearly continuously. These are 5-7 days old.

The larvae is fed until it is big enough and the cell is capped. Inside the capped cells, they will pupate. In the upper left corner of the photo below, you can see a cell that is partially capped, it is day 8 for that one. These capped cells are 8-20 days old. On day 21, a fully formed cute and fuzzy adult worker bee will emerge and be greeted by her happy family. These are Freddie's daughters!

All of these are female worker brood cells. Remember 90% of the hive are female worker bees. Only 10% are males, the drones. Drones are larger than workers and their cells look a bit different. They're a little larger and have a more bulbous cap, kinda like bubble-wrap, only made of wax. Drones are born from unfertilized eggs and the queen can lay them at will. When she does, she will lay them in a particular area of the hive, usually in a corner of the frame away from the worker brood. ... By the way, yes, you read that right. Drones do not have a daddy.

I did not pull many frames today. What I did see looked perfectly fine so there's no need to disrupt everyone. And they were so happy and chill, I didn't want to make them angry.

Another frame I looked at was a honey frame. They seem to have plenty of honey stores, which is good, because they have lots of tiny mouths to feed. There are flowers blooming right now and they're still bringing in nectar and pollen, so I'm not supplementing with sugar syrup. Most of the honey in the hive is real wildflower honey.

It's so interesting to me to see how bees use wax in a multitude of ways. From drawing comb to capping cells. Capped honey looks completely different than capped brood even though it's all the same beeswax. They are clever little creatures.

Look at all that capped wildflower honey. I couldn't help myself.

Pierre and I both tasted it, just a bit. Yes, straight from the hive, straight off the hive tool. Like savages. And I don't think I've ever tasted a more satisfying bit of honey. That is MY honey! Well, it's the girl's and my honey. Ok, ok, yes, it's THEIR honey. But I only stole a tiny bit and it is delicious. They will quickly clean up any drips and repair the gouge I made. I don't think they mind. Especially not today because we are totally one with each other today.

Speaking of honey, last week I swapped out the second deep box for a smaller honey super. They have not been drawing the comb very quickly and it is a lot of empty space. To help the colony maintain over winter, I didn't think they needed too much extra space. I'm really not sure if this was the right call or not, but what's done is done. So the girls can get started on drawing comb in the honey super in anticipation for the spring nectar flow. If they fill it up, I can always add the other deep box.

And now that I've gotten a taste, please, please, please girls, fill it up. I'm definitely gonna want more of that. 🐝