Out celebrating National Honey Bee Day this morning…. Here are some photos and quick videos. No stings either!

Happenings at the hive entrance (video clip, complete with buzzing)

Quick video clip of my honey bees being busy on the inner cover. Note: this is actual bee speed. It was a warm day and they had some fanning and communicating to do (about me entering the hive). They slow down more when I starting working in the hive (read: smoked). This year I have really tried to be light with the smoke. I think that some of my stings last year were from over smoking and really angering the girls. Fight the urge! I use cut up coffee bean burlap bags for fuel.

Another video of two of my girls gather some pollen and nectar off of one of my lemon queen sunflowers (photo above, part of the Great Sunflower Project). It is so interesting how the wings showed up.

Lastly – sweet reward for everyone. I cleaned out some burr comb that had honey it before adding a new box (I think the honey harvest will be a good one this year). Had a sweet snack for myself and put the container back out later for the girls to clean out.

Other fun bee and hive posts:

• https://oddsandhens.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/june-july-beekeeping-tasks/
  
• https://oddsandhens.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/book-review-the-secret-life-of-bees/
  
• https://oddsandhens.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/the-bee-people-chapter-15-16/
  
• https://oddsandhens.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/honey-harvest/