I have a lot of coneflowers at my place, and it has been fun to watch the bees working them intensely. I never noticed many honeybees on them in the past, but they seem to like them in the Cedar Rapids area. Then again, I've never had this type of flower in my yard, so I have many more opportunities to catch them at work. The good news is that the weather has cooperated with the bees lately. After a cool and wet June, July has been warmer and sunnier. (Today there is rain on the radar.) While there is not yet a respectable crop in the boxes, the honey season is showing some promise. We've been cutting up cut comb for over a week, and there are dozens more boxes that should be finished in the next couple of weeks. Let's hope the honey keeps coming! On the queen front, I am now booked until July 25 for new shipments. That is, new shipments can go on July 25th. I continue to be booked a week or two in advance. Mondays in August are still open. Here is an image of the fresh cut comb--it is my favorite bee product, even though I actually eat more of the liquid honey. It's often a challenge to produce high quality sections, so it's pretty wonderful when bees and beekeeper are able to work together and make it happen