We have HONEY COMB... or just comb, cause still no honey...

So excited.  So we had a Twitter friend who has been raising bees for about three years come over to check out the hive.  He was interested to check out the Top Bar Hive and to see what our bees were doing.  So were we... Was the Queen alive?  have they discovered pollen? what's going on in there??

First step, was donning on the sexy ass gear that is the armor of the Apiarist...

Next we ventured in to the yard.  A lot of the snow is gone... but everything is still brown, dirty and wet... it's like trudging through swamp land.  We started checking out the activity in the hive and YES, we have comb. No sign of the Queen or brood.  But the bees all seem happy so we're sure she's there somewhere.  We just need more pollen to actively encourage the process.  Check out the Video.. that I just learned to post... cause I actually LOOKED at the tool guide thing.  LOL.

Or maybe not.  Apparently I need to find out why the video won't load.  *sigh* But, here's some cool pics of the evening.  I'm kind of really proud of my bees.  Despite our amazing incompetence, they seem hell bent on surviving and doing their thing.

The BF and our fellow Apiarist (the one who knows what he's doing) taking bars off the top to see what's inside...

Tools of the trade.  We should get on that.  Also, the whole bee protective gear would be nice.  The bees were all in a mellow mood today, but that may not always be the case...

We have COMB!  Check it out.  Made me happy.  Unfortunately, they are building it on an angle and not along the grooves we made... so we're going to have to cut it off, place it back straight... and train them how to do it right.  Bee training.  Fun.  That will be on Saturday's blog.  We're attempting to do it while all the gathering bees are gone...

Happy bees,  just hanging out and doing their thing.  Not flying around all pissy and ready to attack.

The yellow stuff is pollen.  No honey or brood yet, but that's because this horribly cold and snowy spring hasn't really allowed for much of anything to start blooming.  I'm guessing they're getting it from the trees that are just starting to swell up...