It's Only Mid-June

And I haven't seen any signs that the ladies in Rose will slow down for much of a break!

When I started this season, in my storage room,  I had a total of four empty supers. I had one super that was between 25% and 50% drawn out, and the remaining supers were all empty foundation. In early April, before leaving town on a vacation, I put one super on (the one that was partially drawn) just in case some flowers opened while I was gone. And two weeks later, I wish I had put two on at the beginning. And so the season has gone.

Now I have learned a bit from those mistakes, because I'm checking more frequently, and making sure they aren't running out of space too fast. About 4 weeks ago, the first (partially drawn) super was full, and they were drawing out the second. So I put two more on.

The last couple of weekends when I've checked them, they've been a bit stagnant, but I wasn't worried, I'd take 2 full supers for the season and be ecstatic with those results.

I checked again yesterday, expecting to see more of the same. They have capped the first and are in the process of capping the second, and the third and fourth are more than 50% drawn. Below are a couple pictures of some of the capped frames:

Look at this beautiful honey:

This frame is almost completely capped:

This side of the frame is only partially capped:

My Dad sent me a package last week with 3 more supers worth of frames, hoping to buy me some more time before I'd need an extractor. Well am I glad he did, and yet, if the intermittent rain and sun keep up, I'll need one in 4 to 6 weeks anyway.

When I saw how much progress had been made in just one week, I sort of freaked out just a bit, and ran into the house to pull out 2 more supers of empty foundation that my Dad sent. We've officially moved into step ladder territory. I think I may need to start lifting weights, too :)

Below are some more pictures, just for those who like looking through the pictures, and since I haven't been posting much lately:

I guess I Was Wrong

About a month ago, I introduced my daughter to our new queen.

Then I hung the cage containing the new queen inside Lavender. I checked after two days, and she was still in the cage. A very good friend of mine put on my extra hat and veil to take some pictures and catch a peek inside.

A couple days later, I checked again, and the queen and all her attendants were dead inside the cage. That night, I called my Dad, and he looked back through my pics on the blog. He explained that the laying pattern I was seeing was just spotty because queens in the spring don't always lay consistently, and the pattern when they start out in the spring can sometimes just be off.

So I was apparently wrong, there had been a queen in the hive all along, and it just wasn't laying in a nice even pattern like I'd anticipated. 

Over the past four weeks, during weekly inspections, I've verified this by finding new brood throughout a couple frames. Finally, the laying pattern is what it should be, and is finally looking better. Now, with time, I expect the numbers in the hive will start to increase.

On a better note, Rose is excelling (may have excelled even more if it hadn't swarmed at least once, maybe more) and already has a lot of honey. I'll go into more detail about this in my next blog post.

But yes, you did read correctly, I'm fairly certain that Rose has spawned at least 1 or 2 swarms, because I didn't give them enough space fast enough. Upon inspection four weeks ago, I spotted empty queen cells hanging off the bottom of the frames in the top hive body, which is a tell tale sign of swarming. I'm definitely learning something new every day, and I'll apply what I've learned to next year.

For other beekeepers out there, I'd say the one thing to take away from this post is patience. If I had taken more of a wait and see philosophy with Lavender, and just been patient, I wouldn't have lost a perfectly good queen. I learn something new every week when I check on these beautiful ladies!