Checking on the Bees

A few weeks ago I wrote about opening the hive without smoking the bees enough. I learned my lesson about the smoke and, at Kirk's advice, I added another box (sorry no documentation) in anticipation of a large part of our garden coming into bloom. In the picture above the smoker is fueled with a torn up egg carton.

Here you can see the smoke wafting up after a gentle puff into the hive.


I could hear the bees get a little excited as I lifted the lid but from peeking in I could see that no comb had been drawn in the top box yet.


I pulled one frame to get a better look down into the second box and could see plenty of activity down there. I'll check again in a week or two. If I still find that there is no comb in the top box, I may move a frame or two from the lower box up into the top box to encourage the bees to use the extra space.

Recent bee posts:
Bee Update - A Learning Experience
Feeding the Bees
The Bees Have Landed

BTW - If you haven't visited lately check out the fantastic posts at the Backwards Beekeepers Blog