Back to the Bee Yard...

Quilting ground to a standstill on the scrappy New York Beauty on the weekend. My sewing machine is having issues and we both needed a time out to cool off. The way it's behaving lately, it would take less time to hand quilt...
Hubby and I returned to the beeyard to check on last week's swarm. We were greeted by an unusual number of hornets. Upon investigating, we discovered they had built a nest inside a vacant beehive.
It was interesting to compare the work of the hornets to that of the bees. The materials are very different, but the cells look quite similar; you can see baby hornets with their hind ends sticking up out of the chambers.

Here's a shot of what the bees have accomplished this week. You can see how they are working very industriously building up the chambers with wax . The little white dots you see inside the comb chambers that look like grains of rice are actually eggs that the queen has laid.

And here's a wee peek at me, glamourous rubber boots and all!