Bee Update: blue pollen, small cell foundation fail
Lots of activity in the hive. Here are a bunch of random updates:
Blue pollen
It has been fun to watch all the different coloured pollen coming into the hive. We haven't gotten great pictures, and this one doesn't do it justice, but here is an example of bright blue pollen the bees are carrying in ....
A pretty good picture of blue and yellow pollen in cells.
Foundation rejection
Our hive is currently a top bar hive, with no frames or foundation. As we are trying to regress our bees to a smaller size, we experimented with putting some plastic foundation in the brood area that has smaller cells. Guess what happens to foundation when bees have the choice to build their own comb on a simple top bar - rejection! We have a couple of standard frames with foundation in the hive (from the original bees that we purchased) and they have started ignoring those as well.
Happier comb
Right next to that - a beautiful bee-made comb with happy bees.
Our plan is to try the small cell foundation in a new hive where they will only have that as an option. No top bars. Once they have regressed, we will then offer top bars and move out the frames.