Cool to see the bees enjoying the plants we have in the yard.

Forget-me-nots, such a common plant, but the bees really really like it.

Lonicera nitida 'Fertilis' also sometimes known as boxleaf honeysuckle. Same family as the regular honey suckle and very very strong sweet smelling. I have this shaped as a little shrub border for a perennial border. 

Lamium galeobdolon "Yellow Archangel" - yes this is an invasive plant - don't plant it unless you can contain in by mowing around it, or have lots of time on your hands to keep it from spreading. Hard to catch the bees on this one as they tuck themselves under each little blossom. I'm torn about this plant now that I know the bees like it. It sure is pretty, but this is the one that's becoming a problem all over for taking over native plants in our parks.

Hive Inspection

I opened the hive on Sunday May 1 to see how things were going and wish the workers well on May Day.
It was a lovely warm sunny day and bee traffic was moderate. There was still only about three frames worth of bees, but frame #4 had brood on both sides, a lot more that we had seen at the last inspection. I saw larve at all different stages/sizes of development, and cells with what I was sure were freshly laid eggs. I spent a while looking but couldn't find any bee that I really thought was the queen. I also looked for capped brood but I'm not sure what capped brood looks like. There were a number of capped cells that were very orange so I thought they must be stored pollen, and 2 areas I felt sure were capped honey. I didn't see any bees emerging from cells head first. It didnt seem like the overall population was up much from the last inspection, but the amount of brood observed makes me confident that numbers are growing.

Some sad news:
The cage with the NZ queen on top of the excluder had no survivors.
I am wondering if since the hive is relatively empty, maybe the bees didnt want to go through the excluder? I dont know why they didnt feed her, but when I lifted off the lid there were no bees anywhere near the queen cage. :(

Since Sunday there has been a mix of sun and rain. Weather Network says the week ahead will be rainy.