Photos from a mid-September Inspection

It had been so long since it felt like a hobby!  On a cooler Saturday, Mark and I went to Bee Hill to do a brief inspection.

With the honey harvested, the pressure was off in terms of making many notes. We just opened each hive, made sure there was evidence that everything was in proper order (queen right, no infestations of mites or beetles), and closed it back up again. 

Can you see the almost mature bees' faces? They're still being fed, not yet closed up. You can also see the drone brood poking up above the level of the worker brood.

I noticed dark orange and golden pollen in the pollen baskets of many bees, but without a major nectar flow or the super hot temperatures of summer, the bee yard seemed calm.

See the rows of dark pollen stored for winter?

No masses of bees bearding on the fronts of the hives for the most part. No aggression (until Hive 1, the meanest bees in our yard). Just a pleasant time in the bee yard. I'd missed it.