Beeatrice has been busy laying eggs and the hive is hopping. There are tons of new bees and the hive is growing quickly. The trick now is to keep the hive from swarming (sending off half the hive to start a new colony somewhere else. This means adding new space to the hive so that the bees feel like they have plenty of room.

The early spring has kept the bees busy collecting nectar to make honey, and pollen to feed all the new bees. The forager bees cary the nectar in their nectar carrying stomach and then put it into the wax comb, or pass it on to other bees who then put it in the comb, where the water is evaporated until the honey consistancy emerges. The forager bees cary the pollen in little packets on their back legs. You can guess what plants the bees visited by the color of the pollen. Right now the bees are bringing home light yellow pollen from maple trees, and a brighter lemony yellow from willows. You can see some of the little packets in the photos below. You can also see what the inside of the hive looks like.