My Bees are Producing - Hive Inspection #2

Today Mike and I opened the hive to find Larvae and Capped Brood.  Confirmation that we have a working Queen!  Mike had brought an additional frame with capped brood and larvae to give the hive a boost and get our queen working.   We now know for certain we have a laying queen and this extra frame should further allow the hive to flourish.  Happy Beekeepers find the Gold:

First Hive Inspection

Today we made our first Hive Inspection.  We did not find the Queen or any capped brood or Larvae.  My mentors suspect the queen does not have enough comb to lay on and it could take her a little bit longer to start producing in the new hive.  We talked about adding a frame of Capped Brood to give her a place to lay eggs.   

When your colony begins to shrink, they will almost always benefit from a boost in population. If you have a second, healthy colony you can steal a frame of capped brood from them and give it your weak hive. Mike and Patti would like to bring me a frame from one their hives to install at our next inspection.


My dear childhood friend Renee was here with us and really enjoyed the opportunity to peak into the hive with us.

Installation of my First Beehive

Today with the help of my beekeeping Mentors Mike Layne, Patti Layne & Mary Meyer we installed my first Bee Hive.  My NUC came from R Weaver Farms in Navasota, TX. The NUC had 4 frames and provided a view into the hive where we found capped brood, capped comb and even some honey.  We were not able to physically locate the queen.  We replaced 4 frames in my hive with the 4 frames in the NUC.  We left the NUC box on the ground in front of the hive to allow the remaining bees to rejoin the hive.  The following morning most of the bees had gone into the hive indicating that there was a working queen.  We will make an inspection in about 10 days to confirm our queen is working.

Here is a link to a video of our installation: NUC Installation