April 23rd - This was just a standard inspection. A couple of pictures are below.
Both of our hives are still just one level at this point. We still dutifully fill the feeders as needed.
April 30th - L put on the 2nd super (box) for her hive. Mine were a little behind so they stayed with one super. A few pictures are below.
May 14th - L's cousin and his girlfriend were visiting for this inspection. L did the only inspection, I wanted my bees to try to catch up so I left them alone for a week. Common wisdom says the bees lose some work time (~ a day potentially) with each inspection.
May 21st - A couple of friends from church were over. As you can tell we are in full 'display' mode getting everyone possible to see the ladies. We added a third super (all mediums) to both of our hives.
May 28th - L's mom, dad, aunt, and g-ma were visiting. We split the inspections between morning and afternoon. N's in the morning (with no one watching), and L's in the afternoon (with everyone watching). N added a fourth super and took the feeder off. They're on their own for food now.
May 30th - L added her fourth super today, they just weren't quite ready a couple days ago. She is now feeder free too.
May 31st - Beekeeper meetup at a local pub. Nothing like beer and bees, after all they are only 1/4 different. We got some advice and got to say how well we thought our bees were doing. Got some advice on using pine bedding (like for a gerbil) in the smoker.
June 4th - An inspection by ourselves ... what a novel idea. Only N's hive though. We checked the first (bottom) super fully and then spot checked the other three. The bees seem happy with no swarm cells at all. The pine bedding idea from the meet-up was the best! The smoker stayed lit with cool white smoke the whole time.
Beekeeper meetup sounds fun. Wish I could see an inspection in person, but I guess I'll settle for photos and video. Thanks for the updates!
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