It has been a few days interrupted by storms since Annabelle cast her swarm and Beatrix still stands unoccupied. We are resigned that the swarm, Annabelle-At-Large, will not be back and wish her well wherever she has chosen to settle. That allows all our worries to focus on the remaining diminished colony, Annabelle-At-Home. We fretfully scrutinize all her usual behavior for signs of queenlessness or threat of afterswarm whereupon she puzzles us with unusual behavior.
Wednesday afternoon we were surprised to see drones crawling on the ground in front of the hive, as if evicted. The girls must feel there is not enough nectar entering the hive although we can see them bringing pollen. It has certainly not been dry enough for a dearth and the milkweed is beginning to bloom.Looking for the drones again later that day we saw only one but our attention was caught by a small group of bees on the rear of the crossbar of the hive stand. We have seen isolated bees rest on the face of the hive or the roof. This was an unusual location and the bees did not seem to be resting but rather somehow fussing over one of their number.
Looking more closely we saw that one was a queen and the others were tending her although we could not tell exactly how. Nor could we tell if she was leaving the hive to be mated or returning afterwards. We wished to help but concluded that in our ignorance we should simply leave them alone. A few hours later she and her court were no longer in evidence. And so, not even certain whether we should be encouraged by having seen the young queen, we return to simply watching Annabelle and fretting.
2013 June 30 at 19:24
Oh Lord! How stressful. That queen looks pretty big to me for a young virgin, but I know virtually nothing about queens so will sit back and await your next post in a few days writing of comb full of eggs!!!!
2013 June 30 at 20:24
What would a queen be doing out of the hive if neither on mating flight nor in a swarm? Something to fret us, no doubt.
And, alas, our aged eyes are not up to the task of seeing bee eggs.
2013 June 30 at 20:48
No idea what she’d do. Surely she’s a freshly mated queen. That’s the best answer so that’s what I’m going with 🙂
I couldn’t see eggs myself until I took some photos of brood. I got back to my computer and zoomed in and, low and behold, eggs! Now I can sometimes spot them in the hive if the light is right but I more often just snap away and hope one of my pictures is a) in focus (a risky bet) and b) catches some eggs.
2013 June 30 at 22:22
Oh, my goodness– insect children are even more mysterious than human ones, and one is in so many ways even more powerless with them. 😦
2013 July 01 at 07:03
True. At least there are memories from having been a human child that can inform care of one.
2013 June 30 at 23:25
So interesting. they are such a mystery to me. I am going to take another bee class that has a focus on bee biology. Then maybe I will be better able to understand how I can help to meet my colones needs. But right now I am just trying to say out of their way and know they are better off with out my interference. I really enjoy your blog.
2013 July 01 at 07:11
Thank you.
Hard as it can be to do nothing, we remind ourselves that we can always make things worse.
And bee biology and behavior is fascinating.
2013 July 01 at 11:30
Too bad you couldn’t have nabbed her and put her in your empty hive with some frames&bees. Sunday, after while we had some sunshine, I inspected my hive and found queen cells on a frame. I’ve tried to make a split. Time will tell if a queen hatches out, mates and gets busy.
2013 July 01 at 13:08
We were too timid to make the attempt.
Did you try a book split or just make a nuc?
2013 July 02 at 08:37
Not sure i know the difference.
2013 July 02 at 09:26
Book split is the one we were contemplating as it requires the least judgment. You just put every other frame into a new hive. That way each hive ought to have half the brood, half the eggs, half the honey, etc. Only one (you need not care which) will have the old queen and the other will raise one.
Making a nuc involves carefully selecting a small number of frames to make a mini-hive that can raise a queen. More judgment required.
2013 July 02 at 09:27
In either case we wish you luck and hope both colonies will thrive.