Not much happening with the bees. We’ve had rain every day for seems like forever but probably more like two weeks. I opened the hives today and both Ovechkin and Crosby are doing well. Ovechkin’s pace has slowed, but I’m thinking that’s to be expected three weeks post swarm. They are busy building comb in the super though. Crosby still is staying to the same five frames only they’re building up now. I alternated some empty frames with full ones and found large cells between the top and bottom frames. Queen cells? Maybe. I’ve backed off a little on the sugar syrup because I have a suspicion that’s what caused Ovechkin to swarm – overcrowding and ample food. But all the bees seemed happy and not aggressive at all.
On to the garden news: I found a black swallowtail butterfly caterpillar out among the tomatoes. It was happily munching on some Queen Anne’s Lace that is still abundant no matter how much I weed (which isn’t that much, so I shouldn’t complain). We popped it into a jar and have been giving it a steady supply of new leaves and it seems happy: eating and pooping. I’m hoping we can keep it that way until it forms a chrysalis. I also found my hay bale is pretty nasty so I didn’t throw it on the garden. But I did find some camel crickets so that was kind of cool. And the bumblebees are out in full force. Check out the cute girl in the photo who stopped for a rest in the garden. Lots of native pollinators around my garden – my honeybees don’t seem to linger here. They must be attracted to the exotic flowers at the neighbors!
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