Honey progress

Well it is late July and we have a total of 5 honey supers now installed on the three colonies. We installed the first one today on the new colony we captured as a swarm in June. We did an inspection of the others today and there was some mixed news.
The survivor colony was doing well and got its second super just one week ago. Today they have done a good job of filling most of it with nectar, but nothing capped yet. The patters look typical (see the photo below):


Now we moved down to the new colony of Minnesota Hygienics we started from a package in April. We noticed something strange as we pulled a few frames out for inspection. One edge was completely capped and the other edge had untouched comb, with some spotty places where there seemed to be pollen being stored. (This hive has a queen excluder installed.) Here is a picture of the pattern:


Here is a close-up of some of the pollen on that same frame:


So what is going on with this colony and the honey?

First Eggs!

July 2nd, 2009: Our chicks are nearly 16 weeks old and we got our first eggs today. One little egg and a medium sized one. We're not sure which hens were responsible but based on their maturity, probably Beau and/or Ankita.