Little baby bee eggs! See those white little thingies in the honeycomb? The worker bees will fill the combs with honey and then seal it up for the egg, or larvae, to grow. Then, soon a baby bee will crack out of it's "nest" and go straight to work. Bees have a life expectancy of 1 month. That's why the queen is constantly laying eggs, to repopulate the hive! The queen bee's life expectancy is 1-4 years. Our actual honey will be made later, when the hive is more mature. We will place another box on top of this hive with a mesh sheild too big for the queen to fit through. That way she cannot lay eggs in our honey. 
You can see some more mature bee nests on the other side of this comb.
BARE-HANDED! Crazy.
I can't remember what this is called, but it is the honeycomb the worker bees formed around the queen while she was in her little cage after their transplant here. She was stuck in the cage with a sugar cube. She had to eat her way out! By that time, the bees had acclimated themselves to their new home and she started to reign in her new kingdom.So far, not one sting. These are the sweetest little bees!
3 comments:
I'm trying to bee happy for you. I really am. But these picture conjure up fears I've held since childhood. The evil, malicious bees... destroying my outdoor fun with their thirst for my skin... biting and stinging, gleefully inserting their painful venom, flying away victorious while I cursed them and swore vengeance on their children...
Sorry. I think I'm going to have to stop looking at your blog until the bee pictures are gone. I'll wait til Judson follows through with the order from his father to KICK the hive.
YIKES! My hubby has had some strange and annoying ideas, but this one would put me over the edge. You are MUCH more brave and NICE than I.
this is SO cool! Miss M and I just sat here looking at pictures and it helped her tell me all about the life-cycles of bees that they learned about in school, I just hadn't heard about it yet from her!
Okay, so here is a novice question...do you get bees that didn't "come" with the hive that will then become part of your colony? And then also are there many bees that don't come back? I'm sure it's different with each hive, but what are stats on these bees? (yikes - I must be married to a finance guy to want to know about stats with bees!!)
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