Two Queens, one Hive...again!

July 25, 2014

Sunny, windy and 23 degrees Centigrade

Exciting times in Queen Olivia!  I opened her up just to see how things are going since I really didn't know what the queen was up to last time.  Imagine my surprise when I pulled out a beautiful new white comb with two queens on it.  They were almost side by side and apparently living in harmony! Happily Bill was there with the camera so I have proof this time.  I imagine that this is a mother and a daughter team which is not that unusual according to the books.

Long shot of frame with two queens...can you find them?

Zoomed in shot of the two queens...one up left and one down right.

Both queens were moving around a lot and for a mad moment I thought I had three queens on this frame but one of the queens had scooted to the other side when I wasn't looking.  Here is a wonderful shot of one the queens from the side.

One of the Queens Olivia walking to the other side of the frame.

I think that the two queens should work together until  the older queen "retires" and then the younger one will take over.  In theory this will be a very healthy hive if they both are laying.

Then I went into Queen No Name to see if the capped queen cell that I put in last time had hatched.  I did find the virgin queen this time so hopefully she will fly out to get fertilized in the next few days and should be laying by July 31.  If this doesn't work out, I will amalgamate her with one of the other hives and be done with it.  This hive is a bit under attack by the mites so there are a number of bees with deformed wing virus and I could see the mites on their backs.

The queen in No Name...you can find her!

Bees with deformed wings right in the centre.

This hive is trying to keep itself healthy by taking all the diseased bees out of the hive.  I found many bees crawling along in the grass outside of the bee yard.

Diseased bee kicked out of the hive.

I took a peek into Queen Mab as well just to check on the honey stores.  I was pleased to find a lot of larva and capped brood and for the very first time I was able to see the eggs!  I held the frame at exactly the right angle and could see the little white tiny, tiny eggs.  That was totally gratifying for me.  Also, there is a lot of honey!  I took three fully capped frames of honey to harvest and replaced them with empty frames.

I am crushing and straining the honey now instead of using my extractor.  In fact, the extractor has a new home with a couple of urban beekeepers here in London.  Handy Bill helped me make a straining system with two 5 gallon buckets.  One bucket was scavenged from Organics Bakery.  Bill drilled many little holes into the bottom of it.  The other bucket is my beautiful honey bucket with the spigot.

5 gallon pail with holes drilled in bottom.

Honey combs cut up and dripping into bottom pail.

Hole cut in lid of bottom pail so top pail can rest on it as it drips through.

Awesome crush and strain pail system.

Yummy honey being taste tested by Bill!

This honey is amazingly light in flavour and colour...perfect summer sweetness.  These three frames will give me approximately 9 pounds of honey.  On to August and more honey harvesting hopefully.  Hope your summer is as sweet as this!