All week, we had seen the bees all over our yard and on plants looking for moisture, so we knew they needed a water source by their hives. We made a shallow waterer out of a pie pan and filled it with some rocks to prevent bees from drowning. Happy bees!

Both hives had built brace comb (comb that attaches two objects together in the hive). These girls braced together the top of the frames to the inner cover. They are busy drinking nectar from the broken comb. Unfortunately, we destroyed all their hard work.

This hive’s queen is alive and well. There are eggs in the cells. Can you spot the queen?

A picture perfect frame! Lots of capped brood in the middle with pollen along the edge of the brood and a beautiful honey arc along the top and corners. This frame is going to make a lot of baby bees! About 5000 of them as long as the back has as many capped brood as the front!

Here’s a closer look at the capped brood. Some of the brood has already hatched and there are open cells!

The domed cells are drone cells. Drones are the only males in the hive. The cells are domed because they need extra room for those eyes!

The hive on the left is doing so well that we had to add a second story on to make room for all the brood that is going to start hatching this week. It will also give the queen room to lay more eggs. The hive on the right is lagging behind a bit. It’s doing just fine, but they are not over achievers like the left hive.