April

Happy Easter!

Easter General Conference

Every time I checked the temporary hive there were still bees bustling in and out which was a great sign! We had not looked inside the hive which would have told us 100% whether there was a queen heading up a real colony of bees. You don't want to open the hive too soon after they arrive or they could take off and find a new home. The number one sign from the outside activity is that bees were coming in with pollen on their legs and none of the bees were leaving with pollen, So they weren't just coming and going to steal honey etc... they were foraging and bringing goods back.

Griffin's homework assignment

and Quinn's

Our first inspection of the hive! The queen was there, they had build new comb, and there were bee eggs and larvae.

I was grabbing a soda at the drive-thru and this is what my helper was doing in the passenger seat. It's a Rubik's Cube and a timing device so he can get a more accurate reading of how long it takes him to solve the cube. Guess I'll unwrap my straw myself and also drive at the same time! haha

pre-church haircut

Emery tore into each package as it arrived so she could put together the beehive parts ASAP. She was thorough and did a great job! She's building a "deep" right here. This is one of the 2 bigger boxes that the bees use for laying eggs (brood) and storing pollen and honey. The beekeeper doesn't mess with the 2 deeps- this honey and everything on these frames is for the bees.

These are the frames that go into the deeps. My hives hold 8 frames per deep which is a good size for us. They sell 10-frame deeps but I'm pretty sure I would NOT be able to lift one of those. The bees mold wax onto the black areas to make their hexagonal cells for growing brood and storing honey and pollen. The black color helps the beekeeper see if an egg has been laid in the cells. You always look for eggs when doing an inspection. That tells you the queen is around somewhere (for those that don't want to scour every frame looking for her).

Just doing homework like a normal person

Spencer and I went to the Big Island of Hawaii for a looong weekend and loved it!

Lots of lava rock... everywhere. Everything is built out of this black rock.

Volcano National Park was A-mazing! This is part of one of the craters you can view from above or hike down into.

Beautiful black sand beach

Kona Temple

Quinn made a "do" and a "don't" list for her first playdate with her new friend

Don't be weird, Don't talk with baby voice

Little by little we improved out bees' accommodations. We moved the frames into a new "deep" (box) so we could give our friend his stuff back. We kept his frames and gave him new ones- you can't move bees off frames once they've built comb in them unless you scrape it all off and they have to start over. The bees need to consume an insane amount of honey to produce wax so it's better to let them keep what they've already drawn out. Then they earned their second deep by building comb on at least 70% of the frames in the first deep. They were strong enough to defend a wider entrance so we changed their entrance reducer accordingly AND... we put together a hive stand which was a big upgrade from a folding table hahaha

Griffin always finishes school early and spends the rest of the day distracting everyone else.