Pollen patties and inspections

Today was a first for both my daughter and my husband.  They got to do something with the bees with me!  I'm a second year beekeeper while both my hubby and daughter are both new-bees.  My husband helped me inspect both beehives.  Later, my daughter "helped" me put pollen patties on the hives. The hubby was a little nervous, but said after it was fun and really liked it.  My daughter never really got over her nervousness, so its up to her if she wants to do more with me at the hives this year.  Hopefully she will.  Here's a youtube link to my daughter's first experience by the beehive (please like and subscribe to our new youtube channel while you're there!): Little bee's first bee experience

I had to split my strong hive because I lost a hive over the winter.  It's been a month since I've been into the new split hive, and found it was doing ok.  The strong hive that I split from was also doing just ok--mostly because it decided to requeen itself.  That takes about a month before the new queen starts laying eggs, so the bee population is a little low right now in the hives.  We did find some eggs and larva in both hives, so I was excited.  I made pollen patties with my daughter to help stimulate brood production to build up those populations again.

Here is the recipe I used for pollen patties:

1 cup pollen substitute (Bee-Pro is the brand I used)
1/2 cup sugar water (1-1 ratio)
1/4 tsp Honey B Healthy

Mix by hand until a thick cookie dough consistency.  I had to add a little water to be able to get that consistency. Roll it out between two pieces of wax paper to a 1/4 inch thickness (or a gallon size bag if you don't have wax paper.)  Cut in half.  I would use it as soon as you can.  They don't last long and I wouldn't recommend freezing the pollen patties.

                                                Little bee rolling out the pollen patties.

                                                                         Our beehives