Rollercoaster thrills on the Farm....

Okay, so it has been a while since my last post. Life happens, but mostly I was kindof discouraged about the girls. Those of you who know me will understand. So here it all is, as succinctly as I am able to express it.

You know from previous posts that Meagan and Emily's queens have both been confirmed as productive, as evidenced by baby bee eggs in their hives. I had waited until my nephew could help me to open Taylor and confirm her queen was also freed from her cage and producing little baby bee offspring. But she wasn't. We looked through every frame in the hive, pored over them four times. No queen. Either the colony rejected and disposed of her, or she was not healthy and died after being released from her cage. There are still bees in the hive, so I hurriedly ordered a new queen. They weren't so hurried in sending her, but she came in time.

So Thursday I went to install this new queen in the Taylor colony. So I opened up the hive to inspect and was absolutely gobsmacked to see little baby bee larvae in very good numbers. The queen had been released and was laying. The brand new comb in the hive is so white, I can see how I might miss the teeny white eggs laying in there (see previous post). The queen's marking is also not on her abdomen, making it more difficult to locate her.

So, hooray! Taylor is okay. Sweet. But wait. I just ordered a new queen. Do I just let her die? After some frantic calls to inquire about ordering another package of bees (not available), and calling the bee club members for advice, I decided the best action was to liberate a frame of bees from Emily and install them in the small nuc hive with the new queen. Hence, Hive 4.

You'll see in the photo with this post, the new fourth hive is in the background of the photo. Emily is still the hive in front, but she has moved into larger accomodations. It was an interesting conversation with the nephew explaining that the bees are the colony, and not the box.



Fast forward to today... Emily is absolutely amazing, with the activity going on at her entrance. almost literal clouds of bees are coming and going today. Meagan and Taylor have alot of bees coming and going, but nothing like Emily. Hive 4 has much less activity, but does have some bees in and out.

It has rained for three weeks. Or enough over that time that the grass hasn't dried enough to mow on my days off. Today was my first chance to cut it, and I just felt better being outside and doing something positive. The place looks much better now that the grass is 90% groomed. Another shower late this afternoon put the brakes on the last bit of trimming.

You'll notice Hive 4 is numbered and not yet named. Suggestions for names will be accepted via comments to this thread. So far the most offered suggestion is to name her "Mimi."

I'll also be accepting good energy from all of you via telepathy. I have an opportunity to obtain goats for a very favorable price, if I can complete a fence for them before the end of the month. Some of my better friends are coming this week to help me get a good start. Blog posts to come.