Chain of bees

This is a cool photo showing the bees on a drone frame. See that long string of bees? They are chaining, which is how they determine how best to build a comb.

This is the drone frame, the only frame that we use that doesn’t have pre-built foundation. The bees will build comb with drone-size cells (you can see the beginning of it in the photo), and the queen will lay unfertilized eggs which will hatch into drone larvae. (Amazingly, only the worker bees are from fertilized eggs.)

If you live on the San Francisco Peninsula, and you’re interested in learning more about bees, the Beekeepers Guild Of San Mateo County will have a booth at the San Mateo County Fair (Aug 8-17). They’re planning on having “a live observation bee hive, many types of honey for sale, and a few real live beekeepers.”