Field Trip: Honeybee Inspection at Dilly Dally Farm

This Monday morning, with current uncharacteristic sunshine, offered the perfect weather for a field trip to Dilly Dally Farm in Crawley, West Virginia. My mother, Sarah Voorhees, requested an extra set of eyes during this week’s Hive Inspection, and I was glad to volunteer. The inaugural VVR Top Bar Hive has yet to be installed, and our resident bees still live–very comfortably–in a tree near our driveway.IMG_0911

As a result, I am living my Top Bar experience vicariously through my mother, until ours is up-and-buzzing next spring. After the mandatory donning of the full garb, we began to open up the hive.

DDF Top Bar Removal

The newest section of comb has a great number of bees hanging from it–and one another–in their usual string of activity.
DDF Bee Chain on Top Bar

Another bar, with completed comb, includes brood–and bees–but no honey yet.DDF Brood on Top Bar

The result of the inspection is that the bees are healthy, happy, and right on target (75 days) with the worker, drone brood, larvae, and newborn bees we witnessed. The hope is that the next inspection will yield yet more reproductive activity AND some honey stores for the coming cold season.

DDF SMV Inspecting Top Bar

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