Our bees swarmed on April 14, ten days after we added a honey super and queen excluder. The bees swirled, coalesced, and gathered in our Katsura before heading off into the afternoon sun. Way too high for us to capture. It was very exciting and we were very sad to see them go.

The bees had drawn out about half a frame in the honey super we had added, but it was obvious from the number of bees below the excluder that it was really slowing things down. 
​Note to self: with two deeps of brood-skip the excluders. 

Two days post-swarm I did a midday inspection 58F and found the hive surprisingly dense with worker bees. I ended up not making a complete inspection of all frames after I encountered a frame with queen cells. There were two frames of capped drone brood and one of worker brood, honey and pollen in the end frames. Was the hive honey-bound? Maybe. Definitely full to the brim with bees.

Queen cells: attempting to pull out the fifth frame I found it was really stuck to the bottom, i.e burr comb connecting it to the lower box, and I accidentally uncapped three of the Queen cells (see photo below). This left three Queen cells stuck to the bottom of the frame and three on the top bar of first brood box. The three lower queen cell caps were slightly damaged, with caps torn, but it looked like the workers were already patching things up. In the unstuck frame, there were at least three Queen cells and they looked intact.

What to do now?
I decided to to make a split and moved the second brood box from hive 1 to create the lower box for hive 2. I then placed the Queen cell frame in a second box surrounded by three frames of capped brood and six of drawn comb with honey and pollen on the edges. Hive 1 kept it's original lower brood box and received a second brood box with drawn out comb. The Queen cells are in the center of both hives.

Checking this morning, hive 2 had removed three unfinished pupae and dumped them outside, hopefully not all their queens!  There was action in both hives with orientation flights, though more with Hive 1. 

Guessing this queen pupae is 12 days old; that would mean that our hive swarmed the day after they capped the ten queen cells. A queen needs 5-6 days to mature after emerging, then 1-2 days for mating, then another 2-3 days before she starts laying eggs. 
Our queens should emerge on the 20th; evidence of success will be visible 10 days to two weeks later, the beginning of May. 

Posting this as a marker for my first tree pollen allergies of the season. 

Also thought this cold or flu chart would be handy to compare my symptoms; the main difference from allergies is the pounding headache and and general crabbiness, rather than just wanting to sleep. ​

What's happening in my neighborhood: Atmospheric River!
Seattle received 3" in 24 hours...not the 8" elsewhere in Washington;
​I am happy to be living at the top of a hill today. 

Cheers~

I'm celebrating the New Year with a sweet calendar created by Tessa who lives and paints in Wales.

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Resolutions?
​Pretty much a continuation of every year:

Yoga Plant Lady by Christa @ Wild Optimist

Excellent video for you all:

specifically nectar-feeding bats and Monarch butterflies... Me too!
The Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides is offering a free webinar on
Monday, June 29 1pm PDT---
see you there!

Eleanor Lutz, of Tabletop Whale, created this animated butterfly chart in 2014. I think she is brilliant, and love her application of art and digital technology to science illustration. Be sure to click the link to watch the butterflies in motion!

Then, pop over to Pacific Horticulture to find my inquiry research on "Where Are the Butterflies?" Plus, tips on how to make your garden butterfly-friendly with these Eight Essential Elements.
Enjoy 

~illustration by Roger La Borde

Have you ever found a cool bug in your backyard, tried to I.D. it, and been frustrated because you could not find it in any of your field guides, in a google image search, or even in BugGuide.net?

Do not despair, as you are not alone! As you may know, insects are the most numerous animal life form on the planet, comprising about 85% of terrestrial animals. Not only that, insects come in all shapes and sizes, and do magic called metamorphosis after being nymphs or molting their hard exoskeletons as they move through instars on their way to sexual maturity.

"Arthropods are a highly-successful group of invertebrate animals that includes insects, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, mites, horseshoe crabs, scorpions, and crustaceans. In terms of species diversity, arthropods are second to none. That there are in excess of one million arthropods species that have been identified by scientists and there are estimated to be many millions that have not yet been identified. Scientists estimate there may be a staggering 30 million species of arthropods alive today, the vast majority of which are insects."

The insect world is currently divided into 32 orders. The largest order, the beetles (Coleoptera), contains more than 370,000 species. Other major orders are moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera, 150,000 species), bees, wasps, and ants (Hymenoptera, 120,000 species), flies (Diptera, 100,000 species), and bugs (Hemiptera, 80,000 species).

To make mystery bug I.D. even harder, remember that all insects go through metamorphosis-which means that most of them look completely different from adults when they are in their immature stages as larvae and instars-making it quite a puzzle to identify them, since field guides and websites often only show images of the adult stages of many insects.

For example, take mystery bug #1, found by my friend Lorene in her West Seattle garden:
after three fails (which included an image search, googling "green ladybug",  and BugGuide.net), I  googled "Seattle pest insects" and found a P-Patch reference document from the Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods, that told me all about the invasive Green Stinkbug, which were first reported in Seattle in 2014.
Bingo! Lorene's bug turned out to be the 5th instar stage of the Southern Green Stinkbug Nezara Viridula. She found this insect alongside lots of little tiny black bugs (2nd/3rd instar) on a Dalia leaf, never before seen in her garden.

The thing to remember, when taking care of your backyard, is that often times immature stages of beneficial insects look very different from the adults. Be sure to be gentle when you are weeding and tidying up your garden for the winter, as many caterpillars overwinter in the grasses, leaves, shrubs, and woodpiles. These are your butterfly nurseries. If you do find a "pest" insect, such as the Green Stinkbug, please contact the Garden Hotline:  [email protected] or call 206-633-0224.