Two Queens...one Hive etc!

June 28, 2014

It has been awhile since I went into Olivia and I took all those capped queen cells away from her so I thought I'd better see how she was doing.  I expected to find her majesty happily laying away without anymore thought of the great outdoors.  Apparently I have not learned yet that there will always be surprises in the beehive.

I found the queen in the second box but she looked small and a little confused.  I saw no sign of eggs or larva...uh oh.  Then I found another queen in the third box!  She was equally small and not showing any signs of laying.  Then I found a queen cell with larva being taken care of by workers...oh my!  I imagine that the two queens were both virgins and that something had happened to their mother, Queen Olivia.  I wrote my friend John, the beekeeper and he surmised the same thing and told me to leave her alone for a couple of weeks and then check for laying.

I swear that I moved every queen cell I found when I made the other hive but the proof is right in front of me that I didn't.  I have no pictures of this adventure so you will have to take my word for it.

June 29, 2014

I went through the brilliant Mab.  She is solid!  Not much capped honey so no harvesting until August.

Queen Mab...beautiful1

Then I went into the No Name hive to see whether the virgin queen got fertilized.  I didn't find her but I did find a queen cell with a queen chewing her way out!

Queen emerging from queen cell

She must have been missed when the virgin queen was on her murderous spree.  Not sure what will happen next but I am sure that it will be epic.  I won't go in for a couple of weeks as we are heading East to beautiful PEI.

Wild lupines

View of rolling hills in PEI

Confederation Bridge

July 11, 2014

We are back in Ontario and all the hives need to be looked at.  It's a sunny, hot, beautiful day.

No Name Hive:  The emerging queen was dead...must have been murdered either by the virgin queen or the workers.  There is no sign of larva or eggs and no sign of the queen.  Sometimes the workers don't accept the new queen so they may have killed this one as well.  I will give her a frame of brood to see if she starts a new queen.

Queen Olivia II:  Found her on brand new comb.. There is evidence of laying and larva. I hoped that I would find the second queen but I guess they had their big fight while we were away.  I did find a capped queen cell on a frame of brood so that is what I gave Ms No Name.

Queen Mab II:  Lots of capped honey.  Lots of brood.  I did some rearranging of frames and closed her up.  

This is a short entry but I was in the bees from 1:30 to 4:00 pm.  By the time I was done, the sweat was dripping down my face and I was shaky from moving boxes.  What a workout!

Here are some garden pictures for you to look at.  Until next time.

Day lilies

Russian Sage