Happy bees

I may be anthropomorphizing here, but I think our bees are happy.

At the very least, they have a lot of babies, are making honey and are storing a lot of fascinating pollen.

Laura, my husband and I did a hive check this weekend. All the signs looked good. We found eggs and larva, so our queen is obviously laying eggs. We found honey and pollen, so the workers are clearly doing their job.

The bee population has grown enough that we added on a honey super, another layer of hive. Eventually, if all keeps going well, we will harvest the honey from this super.

One of the highlights of the day was watching a brand new bee emerge. We actually saw her chewing her way out of her little cell. It was fascinating to see.

After we finished with the hive, we sat for a bit, watching the bees come and go. Most of them came back so heavy with pollen they looked a little clumsy. Some bees were so coated they looked like they’d been rolling around in a bag of Dorritos. Or a rhododendron flower.

I loved watching the bees, and it’s satisfying to think of all the pollination they are doing while they’re out and about. Gardeners owe a lot of thanks to bees.

Good work, ladies, keep it up.