Releasing the queen bee went well and hopefully she decides to stay. The bees didn’t eat as much as I thought they would, which was good, I was afraid they’d go through all the food I gave them and be starving in a day because I don’t know how much bees eat. I had left a pollen patty on top of the frames and have a frame filled with sugar water with an additive inside the hive. The bees seem to have been eating from both food sources and had even started building around where the queens cage was before I freed her. Ideally the queen will nestle herself in between the frames and they’ll start building a normal structure. I noticed what the bees built was pure white, my understanding is the white color is because they’re food source is white sugar. There’s plenty of flowers where I live for them to get pollen, but in these beginning stages and later during Winter it is recommended to supply them with food. Having food available at the hive will decrease the chance any bee goes out for food and can’t find their way back. The photo is of the cage the queen came in. Today my big goal is the drip irrigation, there was some rain this morning which is helpful since I didn’t water the trees yesterday. The rain shouldn’t effect setting up the irrigation though I wanted to do some mowing afterwards and we’ll see how that is effected. The grass isn’t so thick yet as to disrupt the mower, but I wanted to clear some paths in the woods that have lots of sticks, the extra moisture might even help in that there won’t be a lot of dust kicked up.
Chris' Morning Pages 