Nancy came by this weekend to help me figure out why I have a "beard" of bees at the hive entrance every night. It's like there's not enough room in the inn-- even though I added a shallow "honey super" a couple of weeks ago. By taking the hive apart and looking at the frames, we found that the bees haven't built out a bit of the comb in the shallow super 
at the top, and have instead been storing the sugar syrup below. (The idea of this was to feed the young bees who do not yet go out an forage for nectar and encourage them to focus on building wax.) Apparently it has been too hot this week for my plan to work. Upon inspection, we found lots of brood, so the queen is strong and doing good work, and a full frame of honey on each end. We'll just leave them to work out the space issue on their own. There were two full frames of honey in that box--one on each end--so I harvested one.
at the top, and have instead been storing the sugar syrup below. (The idea of this was to feed the young bees who do not yet go out an forage for nectar and encourage them to focus on building wax.) Apparently it has been too hot this week for my plan to work. Upon inspection, we found lots of brood, so the queen is strong and doing good work, and a full frame of honey on each end. We'll just leave them to work out the space issue on their own. There were two full frames of honey in that box--one on each end--so I harvested one.Extracting the honey was an unbelievably sticky mess--clearly a once a year "hose down the kitchen when you're done" job!
The full set of photos are here.
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