The egg and the bee?!

Did you know chickens aren't the only ones to lay eggs? Honeybee queens do too! After a week since our bees arrived, with our queen successfully being released out of her queen cage, it looks like she went right to work! If you look closely, each cell has one lone egg in it that looks like a small grain of rice, but in fact that is a honeybee egg! These eggs in particular are worker bee eggs. If you look at the size of the worker honeybee in this picture, you can get a size comparison of just how small they are. I love the black frames because it makes it so much easier to see with the naked eye. 

This egg will go through a process to grow into larvae inn about 4 days, on the 5th day the workers will cover it with a soft waxy mixture after they have placed food in the cell for the growing pupae to eat, which will emerge as an actual honeybee in about 21 days.

This year I am also trying some new feeders that some of my fellow beekeepers are raving about. It takes the place of an actual frame but has the food right there for the bees.

It has a "ladder" of sorts for them to go down while drinking the sugar water. This prevents drowning and seems to narrow as it goes down. Beekeeping has evolved in my many years. They seemed to be interested in it. We will take another look in a few days to see how it goes.