Harvest Preparation

After my poor experience using "Honey Bandit" during the last honey harvest, I decided to prepare for my next honey harvest using the bee escapes. The downside of using the bee escapes is that you have to put them on the hive a few days before harvesting. Luckily my little brother was in town to help me out:

I also wanted to check in on the yellow hive to see that they were getting settled in. I wasn't sure that the queen actually survived the move from the fence into the hive. Since the hive is so small, we actually found her on a frame! Isn't she pretty:

The queen made it, but the yellow hive is desperately low on honey and nectar. Since I caught them late in the season when less is blooming, they've had less of a chance to gather food. They probably need most of the worker bees to keep the brood warm and tend to the queen, leaving few bees to forage... I'll have to give them some honey from one of the other hives to try to boost their strength before winter.