Increasing Capacity & DIY Honey B Healthy

This last inspection was exciting. I knew based on the last inspection that I had done, that there could be a good probability that I'd be adding a second deep for the bees this time. Last time, the bees had around 5 or 6 frames that had been fully or partially drawn out. Also, during the week I had made a homemade version of the essential oil feeding and immune system booster Honey B Healthy. I was eager to try it out on my bees.

Here's the recipe that I used. I found it on www.beemaster.com in the forums, search for Honey B Healthy.
1 c. water (bring it to near boiling)
1 c. sugar (add to water)
Blend sugar and water.
Add 6 heaping tbsp. of lecithin granules
Blend for a few seconds.
Add 1/4 tsp. spearmint oil
Add 1/4 tsp. lemongrass oil
Blend on low for 1 minute. Store. Use in a 1 tsp. Honey B Healthy to every 1 quart sugar syrup.

I bought my essential oils and lecithin granules from Whole Foods.

I lit my smoker, and this time I put on my entire bee suit. I don't like the veil as much on the suit, but I knew that I'd be doing a longer inspection and didn't want to risk it. A bit wussy perhaps, maybe, but better un-stung than otherwise.

The bees had built some burr comb in-between the entrance of the hive top feeder.

You can also see some bees that have drowned in the syrup on the left. The bees have pretty much drunk all the syrup on the right. The bars are thin slats of wood that float in the syrup. The concept is that it gives the bees something to land on so that less of them drown. It's always sad when I clean out my syrup of drowned bees. This time I was actually able to save a couple that had fallen in recently or while I had been inspecting.

A zoomed out view of my hive top feeder, prior to adding the new gallon of syrup. Notice the green Pierco drone frame in my waiting second super in the top left.

A frame of bees drawing out comb. You can see that the right side of the comb is not yet drawn out.

A side of a frame of bees still in the hive. The frame in the bottom of the picture is the frame from the previous picture.

This portion of this frame sticks out quite a bit, or at least it appeared that way to me. A mound of bees sticking out the side of the frame. It may actually be because only this portion of the frame is getting drawn out.

An angled view of the bees, typically you see them perpendicularly.

These bees are either drawing out comb or they may be storing nectar, hence the shine in some of the cells.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was to find the queen. Here she is in this picture (the one with the white dot on her). When you get your queen marked, there are queen marking color codes. For years ending in 1, the color is white. This makes it easier to find the queen and also lets you know if the queen in your hive is the same queen and not one that has been superseded. You can actually see that a portion of her abdomen is down in the cell. She's in the act of laying an egg!

I switched the camera from full auto to close up flower mode. It helped. Again, the queen, surrounded by her retinue of bees. This retinue has the job of feeding the queen, grooming her, and passing her pheromones throughout the hive. You see the queen is so busy just laying eggs, she gets food brought to her. However, from what I've read, it seems that the nurse bees are the bees with the most power over what happens in the hive, even over that of the queen. In some ways, the queen is used just as a reproduction tool, and pheromone (Febreze-like plug-in).

A zoomed in view of a drawn out frame, notice the beautiful white, new wax! If you look close, you can see quite a few eggs.

I took this picture because I really liked the red pollen or propolis that is on the pollen baskets (hind legs) of one of the bees in the picture. You can also see some of this red pollen in one of the pollen cells on the right.

Again, a picture of the cool, red, pollen/propolis on the hind legs of a bee. You can also see a bunch of sealed brood comb. All of these bees will be worker female bees once they emerge from the cells.

After nearly finishing with the inspection, this bee landed on my fingers. It looks like it had been swimming in either nectar or some of the sugar syrup.

A picture of the same bee, different angle. It is super cool that these insects that are so industrious, and have a bad reputation amongst most people, can be so gentle.  It kind of reminds me of Cleveland. Cleveland seems to have a bad reputation. Yet, after living here, I don't seem to understand why. It's not super crowded, and traffic isn't bad. The neighborhoods and homes are beautiful. There are 4 different beautiful seasons. There are so many fun things to do nearby. The food and restaurants are a foodies dream! Why is it known as the mistake on the lake? Bad city PR guys? I actually really like the newspaper here to, The Plain Dealer. This place is a jewel, and not very many people know about it. I mean, we've got freshwater beaches! It's got to be ignorance. Ignorance, why bees are known for just stinging people, and why Cleveland is only known as a rust-belt has been that happens to have the Rock Hall.

I'll admit that I was somewhat nervous that this bee would sting me on the palm or in the soft webbings between my fingers. The worst part about a bee sting is the mosquito bite like feeling that lasts for about a week. It doesn't get mosquito bite like, though, until about a day or two later.

The burr comb, that I removed from the entrance to the hive feeder. I save this burr comb. It will be good wax for making candles, soaps, lip balms, hand creams, or lotions.

The booger looking thing on the top of this jar is propolis. It comes from plants. It has antifungal, antiviral, and antibiotic properties. Evidently, I need to start bringing out a second bottle for propolis. This stuff is sticky. If you don't clear it out, the bees will use the propolis to fasten down the frames. This will make it hard to remove them. Then when you do remove them, there will be large cracks and vibrations which will just make the bees mad. Propolis tincture is often used for sore throats. Apparently it works well too.

So, the moral of the story for this last inspection: added more room to prevent swarming. Added a drone frame (an Integrated Pest Management practice for fighting varroa mites without hard chemicals). Varroa mites prefer drone larvae (it takes longer for drone larvae to mature-- this gives the mites longer to feed and lay eggs). If you remove the drone frame once the brood has been capped and then freeze it, any varroa within are killed. This helps to control the numbers of varroa.

I also found the queen and she is busy laying. Good news. I removed a drone larvae to check for varroa mites (the bane and major killer of bees) and he was clean. I found no other signs of pests or disease. I added another gallon of sugar syrup, this time with an essential oil additive to make the syrup more appealing.