Bee Update and a Gift for you, Benign Neglect, and a new pet

well i did a brief check on the hives today. last weekend i gave the new hive, the pink one, its first honey super, and the yellow last year hive its second. the pink hive hasn't done much in theirs yet, but the yellow hive was pretty busy. no capped honey yet, though, so there is pleanty of time to put a third honey super on it.

i have a gift for you all. gerry at the global swarming honeybee blog has posted this link to some awesome bee pictures from around the world. browse the bees by topics such a queen, honey, apiculture at that link, and visit bees and bee keeper/honey gatherers at this link.

my friend at midwest green blog, and i were talking about bees and gardening and we both have alot on our plates anyway, and are both trying to live our lives as organically as we can. she came up with a cute phrase, benign neglect. neither one of us do things like pull up creeping charlie till he becomes too big of a pest, figuring he is a living mulch to keep tender plants warm and to help seeds germinate in the spring. and neither of us want to interfer too much with our bees lives. that is why this morning isn't too exciting to tell you about my inspection. i am not keeping bees for monetary gain. i just like bees and it is nice if i can get a bit of honey for family use and maybe a few gifts. so all i did this morning is smoke them slightly, take off their roofs and gently pull a few frames up a bit, just to make sure they still had plenty of work to do on the honey supers they have. then i just closed them up and left them be. i don't see the sense in me taking their houses apart and breaking into their most sacred areas, the brood chamber aka bee nursery, unless i really suspect a problem. i know i would take affront to a giant going in my nursery! bees have been about the business of being bees for eons and i really like that phrase "benign neglect". just a peek weekly and let them be bees! you know, i really don't want a swarm as it delays honey production by a month or so, but even swarms are useful and i give them my blessing if they choose to do so. swarms take the old bee with them, and alot of mites and other nasties too and gives a hive a new start, in a way, with a fresh queen and young blood so to speak. in the meantime, the most i need to do is to watch to see if they are filling their honey supers, or if they need another one and let them be! that is why we are so blessed to live in an age when we have access to the sites that gerry posted. we can see the intricacies that go on in the dark of the hive without having to stir up our own bees!lol big hugs to all who visit comfrey cottages :)

oh, btw, the little guy in the pic is my oldest son jesse's boy colin. he is showing off his very own first pet (the family has 3 cats and 2 dogs). meet bob (in honor of sponge bob) the beta! lol