Haulin Pollen

We thought we would try posting an update from the smart phone, but it probably won't be a regular thing. Lawman has "King Kong" fingers and a "Hello Kitty" size keyboard. But, we had a big day today.
We have two hives of bees working in the top bar hives Lawman built last winter. Both hives are flourishing so far. Today was a cloudy and cool day so we didn't want to open the hives up. It's one of the reasons we went top bar over the square box types. Top bars give you a viewing window that you can open to see inside without a bee suit or disturbing the colony. Before we checked in, we found this little guy hauling in pollen, and had to take a break before he delivered the goods.

Then we looked inside, and the girls are steady working.

The last time we opened the hive up, we found one full bar of capped honey and there was plenty of brood cells, so we know the queen is doing her thing. We are already half full on bars. 

Another perk to the top bar system is the custom feeder. We drilled a large hole in the bottom and nailed a Mason jar lid to the outside of the hole. Now we can screw in a two quart jar of syrup, again without opening the hive or suiting up, and only the hive has access. 

The last perk is Lawman made the hives tall enough that he didn't have to bend over to work in the hive, and it keeps skunks and other larceny minded critters away from the inside. 

And to add gravy to our grits, we found our very first duck egg hatched this morning. 

We are pretty excited about the whole thing.
K&K