In other words, I hope to put up part two tomorrow when I check...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Last Wednesday, after checking two or three different bee suppliers, I decided that to be completely sure of myself that I had better double check that my queen was gone. (*cue Granddaddy singing "Gone, Gone, Gone"...oh, sorry...some of you don't have the slightest clue to how funny he made that song sound. :])
Anyway, in a gale of wind (boy did it blow for most of last week!), I suited up and went to work carefully lifting first one frame out and then the replacing it, etc. About the second one, my veil came off since I simply could not see as well as I needed to. No stings...not even any real upset. For my weekly check-ups, I think I'll just leave the thing off from now on (unless they start getting scrouchy on me).
I did not see the queen here, there, or yonder, though I kept an eye peeled. I admit that I didn't really expect to find her there, but I was looking at the frames with just as much intensity as if I did.
Friday morning, I ordered a queen from a place roughly an hour north of us--with a pick-up option. So...Saturday morning, after two wet hours at the Farmer's Market, we packed up for the rest of the day and Savannah and I hit the road:
Last Wednesday, after checking two or three different bee suppliers, I decided that to be completely sure of myself that I had better double check that my queen was gone. (*cue Granddaddy singing "Gone, Gone, Gone"...oh, sorry...some of you don't have the slightest clue to how funny he made that song sound. :])
Anyway, in a gale of wind (boy did it blow for most of last week!), I suited up and went to work carefully lifting first one frame out and then the replacing it, etc. About the second one, my veil came off since I simply could not see as well as I needed to. No stings...not even any real upset. For my weekly check-ups, I think I'll just leave the thing off from now on (unless they start getting scrouchy on me).
I did not see the queen here, there, or yonder, though I kept an eye peeled. I admit that I didn't really expect to find her there, but I was looking at the frames with just as much intensity as if I did.
Friday morning, I ordered a queen from a place roughly an hour north of us--with a pick-up option. So...Saturday morning, after two wet hours at the Farmer's Market, we packed up for the rest of the day and Savannah and I hit the road:
 Granted, neither of these are fabulous shots... |  |
We got into rain after those sunny-looking pictures were taken....but anyway, we made the trip up with no problems and picked up my new queen.
She is a different breed than the previous one...a little shorter and darker. Not going to be quite so easy to spot, I fear.
When we got home, I had a little chit-chat with Grandpa, during which I took a brief run out of doors to go ahead and stick the queen cage into the bottom of the hive--with absolutely no protective gear on. Safe.
See, he recommended that I go ahead and put the cage in without uncorking either end (one end has candy in it that the bees will eat through, the other end simply has a cork) to see if the bees were going to take to her. Well, after I got done talking with him, I decided that since it was Saturday and I really didn't want to get into my hive two days in a row...particularly the second day being Sunday (I'm a semi-strict sabbatarian)...that I was going to go ahead and uncork the candy end--since the bees kind of "have" to take her anyway. So...I put on an overshirt (so my corduroy wasn't the wisest choice) and my gloves and took that frame out again.
See, he recommended that I go ahead and put the cage in without uncorking either end (one end has candy in it that the bees will eat through, the other end simply has a cork) to see if the bees were going to take to her. Well, after I got done talking with him, I decided that since it was Saturday and I really didn't want to get into my hive two days in a row...particularly the second day being Sunday (I'm a semi-strict sabbatarian)...that I was going to go ahead and uncork the candy end--since the bees kind of "have" to take her anyway. So...I put on an overshirt (so my corduroy wasn't the wisest choice) and my gloves and took that frame out again.
How do you like our junk pile? ;)
As you can see some of the bees were already "talking" with the queen and her caretakers.
I *have* to make a frame holder...
I believe that that funny looking projection is what is called a supercedure cell--which--had there been any brood in my hive, would have been the home of a in-house egg-turned-queen. They build them and then tear them down.
By the way, I've decided that I am going to call all my queen's Deborah (since the name means "Queen bee")...so the current one is Deborah II or, D-2 for short.
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