Il tempio di Giove e perfettamente conservato*

I slept fitfully, dreaming of bees and Stargazer Lily's growing above the house. I was up early, and went to the front window to watch the hive. Had they made it through the night? Were they liking their house? Were they eating? Was comb being drawn out? Would they fly in the overcast, foggy wet weather?

No photos were taken in the morning, but our findings were detailed here. Before heading to the train we loaded the truck with the second bee package, hive tools, sugar syrup, smoker, etc! I bagged up my gloves & jacket so a friend could observe the install of Terpsichore, and off Beeman went.



I got home from work around six. The bees were flying around, and I was happy to see a few coming from the fence corner and dipping back down. I was comfortable walking my bike past them to the shed. I grabbed the camera and took some photos of what I found.

First, the hive looks cleaner. Don't know if the bees cleaned up all of the syrup or if they just got bored of the hive, but there were only a few bees on the hive. I peeked around to the hive entrance, and saw two or three bees walking back and forth. Before I could watch them for too long a bee buzzed at my head. I decided not to risk bothering them, and backed off.

We put the bee package on the front of the hive Wednesday night to encourage the last few bees to get in the hive, and today I noticed they were massed on the top. Not sure what this means. This morning I saw that they were moving, so they were alive. This evening, they were moving, but why aren't they in the hive? Or flying around? Odd.

There were dead bees around the hive. :( A professional that we ran into at Mann said "Don't be surprised, they die on you!" but it's still upsetting. I'm starting to think you order three pounds because one pound doesn't make it.






There were bees hanging out in odd places. These were sitting on the fence. One was hanging out on my porch light. A couple of others were alone sitting on various parts of the house. They were all alive, but didn't seem that active. Odd.










The top of the hive with the dried yellow streaks I'd seen this morning. The hive top had dried during the day.







*sigh* Beecat is asking for it. I moved her away as smoothly as I could. I have a feeling she's in for a harsh lesson.















Interesting - two workers, but one has a very dark abdomen, and the other has a very golden abdomen.















I spent a bit of time checking out the veg garden. The Arugula is growing very well! Something has taken some bites out of our Kale (booo, I want to be taking the bites out of the Kale!)













Beet city!









No cucumbers sprouting yet. It's a bit early. ;) but I'm hopeful!


Sitting next to the veg garden, I looked up and thought, this looks like a place bees would like.












The cat was getting anxious for some of the camera attention, and then expertly ditching. I did manage to get two decent photos of her antics.

Speaking of the cat, she's fighting with the laptop for attention now, best I offer it to her before she figures out where the delete button is.















Have heard Terpsichore hive was set up tonight and went very smoothly. Congrats! Can not wait to hear the stories and see the photos!

*Jupiter's temple is perfectly preserved.