We all know that honey bees make honey but did you know that honey bees make other things? Honey bees create their own wax from glands on their abdomen. They take the wax and chew it up to form the honey comb that is found in the hive. It is amazing insect engineering to create a perfect hexagonal shapes over and over again. They use these spaces to raise eggs into young bees, to make bee bread from pollen and honey, to store honey, and they will reshape the wax and reuse it to other areas of the hive when needed.
Did you know that honey bees make their own bee “glue”? The technical term is propolis. It is made up of a bee’s wax, their saliva and sap from plants. It can be a little bit messy for the keeper’s of the bees, but if I get a little bit on my glove, I can use my phone without taking my glove off. The bees have a greater use for it other than giving me the ability to use my phone to take pictures. They use it to seal gaps in the hive. They will use it to mummify intruders that they kill within the hive, for example a mouse that wanders in. I have yet to experience that one, but I’m sure I will someday.
I brought up propolis up because I noticed on a honey super on hive #6, that there was a huge gap. Bees were going in and out of the gap, it is problem for keeping the hive temps at a proper temperature and to prevent robbing of honey from other bees and insects. I inspected hive #4, and there was some extra propolis, which I scraped off and tried to plug the gap in hive #6, which I found the bees in hive #6 harvesting the propolis after I put it there. Then added more bee propolis that I collected after my other hive inspections in the past. I hope they will use that.
I inspected hive #3, I found varroa in that hive, so I will need to treat that hive, hive #1, my survivor hive, is doing great compared to their start in early spring. A lot of new bees will be emerging, that queen is great.
I will leave you with some photos from today. Thank you for reading and bee kind.
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