# Photographs from First Inspection, May 5th, Day 12



## Needo (Sep 10, 2013)

Your seccond hive is definately queenright. I see her on the left-hand side or your sixth photo. That is a nice pair or hives that you have.


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## dynemd (Aug 27, 2013)

Very nice pics, thanks!


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## pen (May 17, 2013)

Great photos


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## djei5 (Apr 24, 2011)

Beautiful!!! Makes me want a top bar now!


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## shannonswyatt (May 7, 2012)

Looks good!


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

The girls are doing great the first colony is defiantly queen right also she is in two of the 4 pics


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

Looks awesome! Those are some deep combs! How many combs have they drawn in 12 days?


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## BeePappy (Apr 13, 2013)

They look great! Pretty girls.


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## estreya (Apr 20, 2014)

Oh, these responses are so encouraging! Thank you everyone ...

Jwcarlson, according to my notebook, the combs on that day were as follows:

First Hive
(3) almost fully drawn;
(1) over 1/2 drawn;
(1) a little less than 1/2 drawn; and
(1) golf ball sized.

Second Hive
(1) a little less than 1/2 drawn;
(2) 1/2 drawn
(2) 3/4 drawn;
(1) 1/4 drawn; and
(2) golf ball sized combs (on one bar).

Through the observation windows, it's easy to see they've made swift progress since then. The anticipation of what we'll find when we open the hive is so intense! 

Djei5, with admittedly nothing else to compare them to, we've been extremely pleased with the Top Bar hive design. They're very easy to manage, and the observation window is a "must have" feature in my opinion.

Thanks again, everyone, and as always, additional feedback, advise, critiques, etc. are most welcome.


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## fruitveggirl (Mar 8, 2013)

estreya said:


> (we've read a few books on beekeeping, but can anything really prepare a person for being in the middle of over 20,000 honeybees?).
> 
> Is there anything specific we should be looking for, or just more of the same?


I had to laugh when I read "but can anything really prepare a person for being in the middle of over 20,000 honeybees?" When I got my nuc last year and opened it up, it was so exciting, but there was also a moment when I looked into that loud, buzzing box and thought, "Oh, what have I done now?" Of course the excitement took over, though, because I'm completely hooked. 

Love the photos! Your girls are absolutely gorgeous!

Recently, I attended a lecture by Chris Harp of http://honeybeelives.org, and he said something that I thought was very interesting. He mentioned that when looking at the brood pattern, don't just look at the pattern of the capped brood. Look at the pattern of eggs being laid/larvae in cells. The reason was that capped brood may be spotty if bees are removing larvae (which they will do for various reasons -- this is normal) or if bees are emerging. He said that looking at the egg pattern will give a better picture of the queen's laying ability.

Good luck with your hives!


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## Teal (Jan 30, 2014)

Wow, beautiful photos!


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## estreya (Apr 20, 2014)

Fascinating, fruitveggirl! On Saturday, i'll try to get a few photographs of unobstructed comb so i can look for patterns (they do cling to that comb, don't they?). I remember reading something about a horseshoe pattern, and made a mental note to investigate further.

PS: I just clicked on your blog link, fruitveggirl - it's absolutely wonderful! I'm putting it on my home page.


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## estreya (Apr 20, 2014)

Hello, everyone!

Just to follow up, we removed the entrance reducers today in order to minimize the congestion (pictured above) that occurs during peak foraging hours (which seems to be pretty much all day). I have a bit of anxiety about it, but they seem to be handling it just fine (knock wood).



We're also experiencing a small heat wave today, with temperatures around 90 degrees. I though a little more ventilation through the entrance might be useful.

Thoughts?


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## msscha (Jan 4, 2014)

Gorgeous pictures! I loved looking at them. 

Something else with brood pattern -- in Jurgen Tautz book "The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a Superorganism", he identifies two new workers castes, one of which is the "heater bee". This bee crawls into the comb spaces between larvae and vibrates, creating heat -- this heat, in turn, appears to have some impact on the eventual role of the bee in the hive, with scouts/foragers tending to be larvae raised at higher temperatures. So, it might also bee that empty spaces are left deliberately so that heater bees can do their thing! I've wondered when looking at brood comb with a bee buried head-first in an empty space if she were cleaning or heating!


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## estreya (Apr 20, 2014)

Thank you so much for your response, msscha, and for sharing such fascinating information. I love seeing their shiny bottoms sticking up out of a cell!


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## estreya (Apr 20, 2014)

This is the photograph i accidentally deleted:


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## Matt903 (Apr 8, 2013)

Yes open the open up the entrances, especially if you see your bees fanning. If you are in the middle of a honey flow, and high temps, then the extra entrances might be needed. And by the way welcome to beekeeping! 

topbarhiveguy.com


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

Did you get your hives from Bee Thinking in Portland?


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## estreya (Apr 20, 2014)

Thank you, Matt903! It was our "gut" feeling as well to increase the size of the entrance, so we went ahead and did it. They don't seem at all challenged by the extra space, and it's kind of neat to occasionally see three or four bees, equidistant and on guard inside the opening.


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## mrobinson (Jan 20, 2012)

The hardest thing to do – but perhaps the most important – is to _"watch,_ but not _intervene."_ Especially during the first 30 days or so, as the bees which were part of your original package get systematically replaced by new arrivals. 

The very-natural instinct at this point is: _"What do we need to do for them?"_ _"What do they need for us to do?"_ Well, the utterly-honest answer to that question might be: "nothing whatsoever." That is to say, "we need for you to leave our hive perfectly alone as we accomplish this transition."

Therefore: "watch and learn, attentively, but do it all from outside." Don't open the hive, even just to "take a peek." Just enjoy.


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## estreya (Apr 20, 2014)

Thank you for your feedback, Mrobinson. The "watch but do not intervene" lesson (which i instinctively knew to begin with) was thrown into sharp relief recently at the hives. We live and learn ...


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