Taking the time this morning to really look at one of the pictures I quickly took one-handed while the other hand was firmly grasping a brood frame, I was amazed at what I had captured. You can see the queen - she's the one with the blue dot painted on her back. You can purchase a marked queen so you can easily spot her in the hive. They use different color markings for each year so that you can also tell her age. Typically a good queen lives only 3 or 4 years. The color for 2010 is obviously blue.
The hive started with plain foundation for the bees to build their comb onto. In the corner of the photo, you can see this plain foundation. Looking elsewhere in the photo, you can see where the comb is being drawn out. You can also see the pollen stores (yellow) inside the comb cell. Additionally you can see the clear syrup stores - I assume that this is simply a transfer from the top frame feeder, I think stored nectar has more of a yellow hue to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment