Follow Up

Bearded Iris Show Part II...and below, Snap Peas in the Morning Light...
Above, the very unusual Painter's Palette...It is a shade loving multi colored shrub that bears tall, spiky, bright red blooms, in the autumn. Below, Roses on Parade.
California Poppies are in Abundance...The bees enjoy them a lot. Below, the Lush New Growth of the Plum. They seem very happy with the dry conditions... Below that, Strawberries of some Gigantic Breed...they were freebies with a catolog order. They have spread everywhere and now look like they are going to bear as well...Will they be hollow and flavorless?
Sweet William...A very dependable Homestead Flower. Freely reseeds and is fairly drought tolerant. Good for the lazy gardener! Below, Simba...Resting up for Summer.
This is a follow up to my last post. I have so many more great shots in the can ( I guess that should be on the card) and some amazing videos of the bees. ...BUT - Speaking of busy...I've little time to blog, and my hips say no blogging! So I am staying active and enjoying the summer sun.

BUT, I am following the bees progress closely and was able to inspect again today. The weaker hive is queen-less so I have ordered another. It will not be shipped until Tuesday! We will re-queen by next Friday, and the new queen should be laying by the beginning of the following week. Which will put this hive about a month behind the other. They are still consuming the syrup, and have collected a good amount of pollen and nectar. They are slow to draw out the comb, but do have some capped honey, a good amount of capped brood, but no open brood or eggs. I will be nervous until I can install a new queen...and what even happened to our first? Was it a Swarm? Injury/Death? From what? Skunk? Bee Keeper? Stress of travel? And why, did she lay so well at the first, and then this dearth of birth??? And why are there so many drones in this hive? Like too many i think....Anyway, I am in wait and see, and trust the process mode with this one. Hive two is kicking butt. I decided to remove the queen excluder, and the second super. They just haven't got the hang of going through it, and had drawn no comb in either box. But they are so crammed into the brood chamber they are hanging out the front door at night! So I will let them build up some comb on the first super and then replace the excluder (or not... maybe I'll let them have the first super too.... )Today I again saw the queen. There was also TONS of eggs, brood, good pollen, nectar and some capped honey too. Yea!