Beltane Waxing Planting Moon
Colony 1, the parent colony, got a reversal of the two hive boxes today. I checked the honey supers and they have some honey, a very modest amount, but they still have a lot of comb to draw out, so the honey will come when that work finishes. This colony has bees all over the place and they were ornery today, buzzing, circling, hitting the screen of my veil but not stinging. They flew up in concentric tornadic columns from the hive entrance, making the noise that sends wise predators running.
Ah, well. The beekeeper goes where wiser beings fear to tread. With smoke, slow movements and a work plan I’ve not the found the bees difficult, but that one day where I 
defied common sense and peeked in without the bee suit or smoke, I did. The multiple stings I took color my movements and my tolerance of the task at hand, making me want to move quicker, get done a bit sooner that good beekeeping suggests. My hope is that repeated visits to the hives combined with good management practices will slowly drain that anxiety.
Colony 2, the child colony, has the old hive box from the parent and a new, young marked queen. I didn’t see her today, but I did see larvae, so she’s there and at work. After I checked for swarm cells, I closed colony 2 back up. Finally, colony 3, the package colony hived about 3 weeks ago had worked through their initial bucket of syrup, so I had to come inside and make a new one for them. The pollen patty was good. Again, there were larvae and the comb looks fresh and beautiful. I closed them up and declared this week’s bee duties discharged.
I’m sending the picture here into the UofM to ask about the pancake shaped additional comb the bees have built. I’m also going to ask about black streaked comb. I couldn’t find the frame, I think it’s in the parent colony, but I saw it when I made the divide.
