Monday, May 25, 2015

God Save the Queen!

Sweet relief! Good Queen Maud has been found.

I combined what was left of queenless Myrtle with Maud last week. I put a sheet of newspaper on top of Maud and put Myrtle's box on top and shut the lid. They'll sort it out from the inside, and sure enough, they did. There was a big hole chewed through the middle of the paper to get up into the piddly comb that Myrtle has. Still nothing on any of the outer frames, but the bees are alive and are now part of the bigger colony.

Good. Step one. 

I didn't want to do a full inspection, so I just looked at the frames in the middle box, Maud's second box. All I really wanted to see was evidence of a queen so I can rest easier and not have to worry about them all the time. I pulled one frame and didn't see anything except pollen and some nectar. Same old story as last time.  The next frame had a lot of unattended cells, but as I looked closely, with my glasses on, I saw tiny little grains of rice standing on end.  Eggs! Woo hoo! Evidence of a queen! I didn't see anything capped, but at least I saw eggs. That means the queen was there at least in the last three days. Better get the frame back in so they don't get cold...

Step two. Check.

I pulled the next frame, just to see if there were any more eggs, and there, up in the corner, she jumped right out at me. MAUD! Holy crap, there she is!  She's big and fat and gorgeous, and she's laying eggs. Hallelujah, I have a queenright hive. 

Jackpot.

I buttoned everything up and called it a day. No sense disrupting the rest of the boxes. I saw what I needed to see.

Now my challenge is to leave them alone for a couple of weeks so they can do what bees do. Wish me luck. ;)

Trust me, she's there. Top left corner-ish. Surrounded by her attendants.

Giving my girls a big hug. 

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