First comb

Woohoo! We are so excited- checked the hive the other day (Monday) and found that the bees were out of sugar water (not many in the feeder area). We replaced the feeder, then decided to remove the queen cage. When we pulled up the bar, we discovered that they had started drawing comb! This caused a lot of excitement for us because we were really anxious about them leaving. We saw pollen and sugar-water inside the cells, but no eggs yet. Of course, we weren't really looking for eggs. We will check again on Saturday and see if the queen is laying.

We took out the queen cage. I smartly brought a pair of needle-nosed pliers that made it easy to remove the tack that held it in place.

The bees were remarkably calm! We haven't been stung (yet) and haven't had to smoke them except a little bit to encourage them to go back down into the hive. We use a feather-duster type thing to help them scoot along.

I was able to get a picture of the comb (although it's covered in bees!). I'm also uploading some other pictures of the flowers our bees have been visiting and a couple cool pictures of some other pollinators.

Enjoy!

Our hive, hard at work!

A wild bee- pointed wings seem more wasp-like

Henbit- a wild yard flower (weed). Apparently this one has RED pollen!

You can see a honeybee with pollen coming in for a landing...

This pear tree has been picked over by pollinators now that the weather has warmed up.

Homing in on the Bradford pears. These trees STINK to us, but the pollinators love 'em!

You can see how the fuzzy body attracts pollen.

This one has some pollen in her basket already.

Dandelions are more than yard weeds- they're great early spring forage!

This wild bee was surprisingly obliging and held still so I could take pictures.

Interesting how the wings are held away from the body and not folded over each other like the honeybee.

This bee is also very hairy!

Not much gold on the thorax. Anyone know what kind of wild pollinator this is?