New bees

My hive didn’t do so well over the winter. The queen is still there but I only found a few hundred bees around her (normal hive is in the tens of thousands – healthy hive is 70,000). I moved them to a nuc (small 5-frame box) to see if they can turn things around — if they do, I’ll have two hives.

The old bees, gathered around the queen after a tough winter. Can you spot the queen?

I ordered a new package of bees, which I installed Saturday. Today I released the queen who stays in her own cage for several days until the new bees (who aren’t her kin) decide she smells ok and can be their matriarch. She has already mated with some drones in California, so she has all she needs to lay up to 2,000 eggs a day (less in the winter) for 5 years or so. The other bees’ job is to keep the queen alive and prepare cells so she can lay eggs that will hatch into their replacements. Tough life. After a month or so the whole hive will be the new queen’s progeny.

Here’s a little video, at half speed, of today’s hive entrance activity –

And some photos –

Orange-legged one on the right (facing down with spread wings) is bringing in pollen
Bees are pretty interested in the queen who is in that corner of the hive (but inside)
Coming in for a landing
Peach blossom harvest
Installing the bee package (plastic white box at my feet)
Peach blossom harvest

The Hills in New York City

April 2018 visit to NYC – lots of tourism, a Hamilton show, and Nate Bargatze.

Trinity Church – NYC – burial place of Alexander Hamilton and family
Brooklyn bridge
Empire State Building – GoPro fisheye lens
Brooklyn bridge
Manhattan view from Ellis Island ferry
Hot Dogs and Pretzels
Rockefeller Plaza – NYC
Times Square statues of liberty
Yes to Lox, no to locks – Brooklyn Bridge
St Patrick’s Cathedral – NYC
Bike tour of Central Park
View from Central Park – NYC
Nate Bargatze at Caroline’s Comedy
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Outside Rodgers Theater the day before Hamilton
Eliza Schuyler Hamilton’s grave – Trinity Church, NYC
Trinity Church – NYC – burial place of Alexander Hamilton and family
Outside Rodgers Theater the day before Hamilton
The bridge from the snowball fight in Elf – Central Park, NYC
New York Stock Exchange
Times Square red steps
Bike tour of Central Park
Chrysler Building
Brooklyn bridge
Manhattan view from Ellis Island ferry
Statue of Liberty finally visible through the fog – view from Ellis Island
View from Central Park – NYC
View from Central Park – NYC
Bad portraits for cheap! Central Park
Brooklyn Bridge
Alexander Hamilton’s grave – Trinity Church, NYC
Outside Rodgers Theater the day before Hamilton
Lighting a candle in Trinity Church
Imagine monument – Strawberry Fields, Central Park
Dome of Federal Hall – NYC
St. Luke and St. John
Cafe Wha? – old Bob Dylan hangout in Greenwich Village
Bike tour of Central Park
Ice skaters – Rockefeller Plaza
Times Square
The bridge from Home Alone 2
Rockefeller Center – NYC
Brooklyn bridge
Alice in Wonderland – Central Park, NYC
Ellis Island tour
Manhattan LDS temple
Empire State Building
Outside Rodgers Theater the day before Hamilton
New Amsterdam
New York
Radio City Music Hall on a foggy night
The Empire State Building
Matching poses in the subway
View from Ellis Island
We are probably the lowest priced in the city
Times Square red steps
Rockefeller Plaza – NYC