HoneyBees- week 2 update & 1st Hive Inspection

Memorial Day marked 2 weeks since we welcomed our swarm to the Top Bar Hive at Redwoodshire.  We've been watching them daily through our observation window, and they have been very busy.  At day 12, we did our first hive inspection.  Unfortunately we only took a couple photos, because we were focused on inspecting the comb- which was territory completely unknown to us.  And it seems as though we probably made a few mistakes in the process- though nothing hugely detrimental.  The inspection went well and was so fascinating.  We were blindly going about it, as we noted what we saw, but were not entirely sure what everything we observed was.
Check it out:  The dark golden filled cells are stores of pollen.  The light cells are filled with a clear liquid, or empty.
DAY 12- Hive Inspection

And the Laird spotted the QUEEN!!  He's been talking about needing to find the queen, to which I always responded with cynicism because there are thousands of bees in the hive.  But sure enough he spotted her-- which made us both quite pleased.  We have a queen!  I think we spotted some eggs within the empty cells, though we are not entirely sure.  On our next inspection, hopefully we will spot some larvae or capped brood cells.  

DAY 15:  Observation- Spotted the queen through the observation window- though I didn't have my camera to take photos.  Check out the bee entering the hive-- notice the pollen filled back legs!  I can't believe I got such a cool photo.  The bees are quite active today.

There are 9 good sized bars of comb visible.  I spotted 2 smaller combs started on bars 10 & 11.  About 1/3 the length of the hive is filled with comb- as our TBH can fit 30 top bars.  

  

In other news, our Queen Anne Golden Raspberries survived the transplant and have sprouted leaves.  Of them, 9 out of 11 plants are thriving!  The red raspberry row is growing like crazy, and is covered with blossoms and berries.  And the blueberry blossoms have started becoming berries as well.  It's our third season, and it's going to be the best one yet!

News in chickens:  One of our little Amerucana chicks, Belle appears to be sick with Wry Neck.  We're researching in on the internet and doing our best to remedy her condition-isolation from other chicks,  baby vitamins & tuna in water.  She seems to be doing slightly better, but is still under the weather.  Queen Mother & Diana have been enjoying their days free ranging in the yard, while the 4 little Marans are getting used to the coop.  We finally finished securing the run below the coop, and they are utilizing that as well.  The Laird is trying so hard to get that garden planted, but with re-fencing the garden, finishing up the chicken coop, bee business, yard clean up....  he's a bit behind.  The garden is taking a toll due to all the other projects before us.  Hopefully this weekend we will get everything in and planted.

This is all the news fit to print at Redwoodshire.  Bees, chickens and berries.