Today was so beautiful - no wind, warm temperatures and sunshine galore. A perfect day to get back into my hives.
My mentor Margaret called me the other day in response to an email I had sent to her and John about the overabundance of drone cells in my package hive. "You're just going to have to take out every frame and find the Queen" she said. "But they're calling for rain the next three days, so you'll have to wait for nicer weather." Oh, sure, find the Queen. Easy for her to say, she's a pro! Taking the frames out is certainly easy, but finding a Queen amongst all the workers and drone bees is, well, like finding a needle in a haystack to my untrained eye.
Before I was able to don my beesuit and veil and get to work (because I had errands to run), I was able to go out and just observe the hives for a few minutes. There was a lot of activity just outside my nuc hive. It looked like orientation flights to me. This happens when new bees emerge from their cells,make their way outside, and fly just outside the entrance of the hive to orient themselves to the location of their home. It made me smile to think that I had a group of new bees (haha, newbies) and it got me thinking that maybe today I'd witness the birth of a new bee. When it comes to these bees I am like a kid - bees seem less like a hobby and more like magic. Errands needed to come first so I had to settle for snapping this one shot.
After running my errands I was able to come home, put on my gear and collect my equipment. Since I now have a clean shed, I also now have a safe place to keep my bee equipment that is really close to my hives. I was able to light my smoker much more quickly than before and got a good, steady smoke started. An empty cooler served as a table to put the empty super on (I'd need somewhere besides the hive to put the frames once I'd checked them for the queen). I had my camera at the ready. Now I just needed the Queen to make an appearance and my worry would be alleviated.
Once the outer cover and inner cover were removed this was what I saw in the package hive. There were more bees on the tops of the frames than I remember seeing before, I think this is a good sign. I am hoping it's a good sign. I don't want to lose this hive!
While I was looking for the Queen, I noticed that there were actually bees emerging from their cells! If you look closely at the photo to the left the dark spot in the center of the shot is actually the head of a bee. I spent quite a long time looking at this and hoping to see it finally free itself from the cell, but I had the hive open so long I was starting to get worried about robbers.
In looking for the Queen, I did manage to figure out what the drone bees look like. The have bigger eyes and a more rounded abdomen than the worker bees - which I already knew - I just hadn't seen one in the hive before. The drones are males and come from unfertilized eggs. Workers are female and are born from fertilized eggs laid by a properly mated Queen. Anyhow, I had hoped that this darker bee might have been the Queen but it's unfortunately not. I've had my bees a month now and feel like such a slow learner.
Ultimately today I didn't find the Queen. She keeps eluding me - that means now that I have to ask my mentor and her husband if they have time to come by this week and help me find her. I don't mind asking for the help, I actually look forward to having someone in my hives with more experience than I have.
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