Inside the Hive

Last week Erin, the owner of the beehive at our place, and JoAnne, a beekeeper from nearby, came to inspect the hive, do some maintenance and try to locate the Queen. This kind of thing is done throughout the summer in order to ensure the hive is thriving and, in this hives case, produce enough honey to last through the winter. As we don't intend to take any honey for ourselves this season the primary goal is that the colony of bees flourishes and reproduces by several thousand.

JoAnne with a frame

This is an older frame that came with the new hive to establish it

Peanut shaped comb can indicate a swarm may occur

The Queen has been found!

We scraped off a bunch of comb, and honey, that was built to brace between two frames.
As this is not ideal we took it off the frame and reaped the rewards.