Mrs. Pondero’s bees have been active. Though I might think it hazardous to fly sorties in such wind lately, it seems these critters are up to the challenge. Those orange blobs on their legs, are not fashion. They are evidence of another successful mission.

You can compare the rear legs of the arriver with the rear legs of the one departing. Continuous missions indeed, but has there been sufficient progress to suggest a new brood box be added?

That was the question of the day. Here, Mrs. Pondero uses smoke to prepare the bees for inspection.

Once the lid and feeder tray are removed, this is the first view. A box full of frames with so much honeycomb building activity, it literally overflows. They seek to fill the voids.

When one of the frames is removed for inspection, we get a better view of the results of so much activity.

Capped cells at the top of the frame, and work progressing on the others.

Mrs. Pondero wants to find the queen, and make sure she is doing well. She also wants to see if most of the frames are being used, and make a decision about whether to add another brood box. So she removes and inspects each frame.

She removes the superfluous honeycomb.

Even the son-in-law participated. He pulls a frame for inspection, and receives a tip from Mrs. Pondero. I’m getting quite skilled at using the camera’s zoom capabilities. After all the inspection is complete, Mrs. Pondero decides to add the new brood box.

Anticipating the good news, we had the new box handy.

Mrs. Pondero uses smoke to encourage bees back into the hive. She doesn’t want to harm anyone when placing the new box to the hive.

Careful placement.

Then return the feeding tray, and…

… the lid.

Finally, the tie-down strap is replaced. It has been quite windy out here on the prairie lately.

And at the end of the day, Mrs. Pondero took the superfluous honeycomb and produced a small batch of bee’s wax. It was a day which provided hope for a honey sweet future.