First Hive Check

 

Bee Whyld bee yard

The Bee Whyld team ventured out on Monday afternoon to do the first hive check. The new hives have had a few days to settle in, and foraging bees are already busy bringing rich, Yukon pollen in. 

Brood box brimming with honey bees

We were happy to find all the hives brimming with bees. These hives are early splits from the Vancouver area. It is apparent these colonies are quite a few weeks ahead of our Yukon ones.

Jess smoking bees before removing the top box

With Liz’s New Zealand beekeeping tips and tricks, everyone became pretty adept at opening and inspecting the hives. The smoker came in handy to keep the bees calm.

Joel holding a full honey frame

Those industrious worker bees have been busy collecting nectar and have already created full frames of honey. These frames will remain in the larger brood boxes. This honey will be left for the bees to eat.

Courtney searching for the queen on a very busy brood frame

Frames that are situated in the middle of the box tend to be brood frames. Brood patterns were examined while keeping a watchful eye out for the all-important queen bee.

One of our beautiful queen bees in the centre of the picture

It’s always exciting to find the queen bee. These are beautiful hybrid queens. They do not have a solid black, or orange, abdomen. A hybrid queen can produce orange or black drones. There were plenty examples of both.

Younger larva in top left, older larva bottom right, capped pupa in centre

Frames are gently removed with hopes of spotting the queen. If the queen remains elusive, then signs that she is hard at work is enough. This is evident when eggs and larva in various stages of development are present in numerous cells.

Feeding the bees

Finally, before closing up the hive a sugar/water mixture is poured into the in-hive feeder. This is to sustain the bees until the Yukon flowers are in full bloom.

There is simply something magical about spending an afternoon surrounded by thousands of buzzing honey bees.