THE BEE MYSTERY

WHAT'S WITH THE HIVE?

      Regular readers of Light/Breezes may recall earlier postings about our hive of Blond Italian Bees from Glenn California.  These are the same gentle bees that suddenly disappeared after apparently being attacked by interlopers. 
      All at once we had an empty hive, our Blond Italians no where to be found.  We waited a while, but the hive remained quiet.  Lana was tipped by George, a northern California bee keeper to put out a little lemon grass oil to see if it would attract a swarm.  It did indeed, some of these guys are included in that number.

    We asked Ian, a local bee keeper and expert to take a look at our new swarm and to check out conditions in our re-located hive.

     Ian found a full and productive hive. Evidence of honey being made, but mysteriously no sign of a queen.  He found
the beginnings of a queen's "condo", but no sign of a queen.

 In his Kiwi accent, he noted a couple of times that it was
"odd."  So now the mystery has taken another turn, an odd turn.  A busy and seemingly productive hive without a queen in command. What does that mean?  Stay tuned.

See you down the trail.