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Attending the queen
The workers circle the queen passing her food and picking up her smell. The attending workers change in a short time and will pass these to others in the hive. If for some reason the queen dies or is removed the missing "queen smell" will trigger the workers to start the process that will yield a new queen. Image provided by "
P-O's Home Page
".
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Covered brood cells
Inside the sealed cell a larvae spun a cocoon to become a pupa. About 12 days after the cell was sealed a new worker bee will emerge. The tops of the brood cells are rough as, unlike the seal on a honey cell, air must pass into the cell for the pupa.. Image provided by "
P-O's Home Page
".
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Not kissing
One bee is feeding other food from its stomach. The feeding bee may consume the food, pass it to another bee, or if the giver has just returned from foraging flight and has nector, the feeding bee may place it in storage. Image provided by "
P-O's Home Page
".
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Exposing the Nasnov
The Nasnov gland (light colored slit near rear of bee) releases pheromones (smell) that directs bees returning to the hive or directing them to a swarm. Normally the bee will fan its wings to create air movement so that the release covers a larger area. Image provided by "
P-O's Home Page
".
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Resting with a full load
This bee has her pollen baskets loaded with pollen and stopped to rest on the way back to the hive. The pollen has been wetted with small amount of nector so that the small grains stick together to reduce losses. Image provided by "
P-O's Home Page
.
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A new queen begins
A new queen is hatching from a "queen cell". Note that the size and shape of the cell differs greatly from that containing a worker and is attached to the bottom of a comb. In an emergency queen replacement any worker egg can become a queen by feeding the larvae only royal jelly. In that case the queen cell will be on the comb and a more irregular shape, but still much larger than worker cells. Image provided by "
P-O's Home Page
.
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Two varroa mites
Two varroa mites on the thorax of a worker bee. Image (K11145-1) provided by the
Aricultural Research Service
of the USDA. The link is to an interesting article on the recent development of mite resistant bees by the ARS.
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Way too hot to be inside.
April 27th '04' was hot in the valley even at 9:30 that night. Inside the hive it was even worse so the bees came outside to keep the inside from getting too warm. Here they have covered the from of the hive and the extended landing board. To the left is another hive with bees only on the front (next picture is a close up of that hive).
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Hey girls, is this bearding?
This is a close up of the hive on the left in the preceeding picture (see details there). The lip above the entrance have contained those "hanging out" to a smaller area making the "beard" up side down.
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Hive with frames moved
A top bar hive is a box whose sides slope in to try to match the natural angle of hanging comb. The top 'cover' is formed by the bars. The entrance is low on the end of the box. Here the left frames have been moved out to inspect the comb. The rails extending from end of the hive are to hold bars when working the hive.
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Looking into the hive
This view shows the bars and how the comb hangs inside the hive. The bars are numbered to aid replacement after working the hive (29 total). Note that the ground is visible through the bottom screen of the hive.
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Natural comb on a bar
This shows how the comb takes on the shape seen in feral bee hives. The small board on bottom of bar can be seen that should support the comb. For an unknown reason the combs in this hive was angled across the support board rather than along it.
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Discussion before starting
This is the club hive opening outing June 1, 2004. See the archive meeting notes for details. Talk was so good that nobody looked at the camera.
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Hey, one looked
This is the club hive opening outing June 1, 2004. See the archive meeting notes for details.
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Get ready for bees
This is the club hive opening outing June 1, 2004. See the archive meeting notes for details. Some final adjustments before going to the hives.
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Round hive that split
This hive was in a old fence post. In the effort to remove the post from the ground it split. The image shows how the bees were able to put the odd shaped interior to good use.
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