Rooftop Beehive 2: Good News on a May Morning

Catching up on beehive news...

We welcomed our second hive the third week of April. Noam returned April 24 to release the Queen from her holding chamber in Hive 2.

Art got this beautiful picture
of a bee emerging from her cell.

(click to big it up)

Today we checked to see if the Queen was laying...

...and she is!

I wanted to take more photos, but a zombie bee would not leave me alone, despite my protestations that I was a friend to all bees. I got a sting about one inch west of the botox zone between the eyebrows and had to leave the scene for a while.

It was a minor occurrence, and possibly wearing shorts and a t-shirt on this fine May day was a poor decision (still--my face?). Next time I'll take Erik's advice to heart...

PS: if you're thinking about hosting your own bees, or even if you're not, read this stunning report from today's Guardian:

"Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter."