LONG LIVE THE QUEEN

QUEEN FOUND

MYSTERY SOLVED

     As you may recall when last we left our bee hive there

was concern that no Queen was in residence.  The colony appeared healthy and vibrant, but no queen even though there was evidence that larvae might be present.  "Odd" is how bee expert and advisor, Ian left things, "really odd."

     Well, Ian and his mentor, 30 year bee keeper Michael, paid a visit to look things over.  They even brought a Queen, in the carrier below.

   Michael confirmed Ian's assessment, there indeed had been a Queen's cell, now abandoned.  It is now useless.

    As they continued to study the hive, they saw more signs of a Queenly presence, but not until they were well into the 

hive did they make the great discovery.  

   There was Queenie-a nice sized and young queen. She is the large bee in the center of the frame.  Though partially covered by wings, you can see she is larger than the others.

   She is the large bee, again just below the middle of the frame. She is also more blond. 

  She's in the same relative location in both of the remaining frames.  

  Ian and Michael say she is "a good looking queen."   Further inspection found more evidence of larvae, so the colony should be fine.  But there is a fascinating back story.

  They speculate this hive just recently, in the last day or two, made this queen. On first inspection we could not find her, because she is brand new, just born.  

   One of two things probably happened, the old queen either died, or quit producing off spring and was killed, so a new fertile Queen could take over. Both experts say it is better for a hive to produce its own Queen rather than bring one in from the outside. That is true to a point.  After 3 or 4 generations, apparently the DNA or gene pool can be over drawn and you can begin to experience problems.  More Bee drama in that case.   

   As the distant observer, I'm waiting for this hive of Blond Italians  to start making enough honey that their documentarian can share the sweet goody.  

   BTW, I'm told they are a different group from our original Blond Italians who simply disappeared. They either were weakened from with in and were overpowered by marauders or simply swarmed away, for any number of reasons.  Who knew the Bees were so much like human Royalty.  Intrigue, inbreeding, palace coups, roaming bandits.

    The drama buzzes here on the ridge.

    See you down the trail. 
    HERE IS A LATE POST SCRIPT-NOTICE THE COMMENT BELOW FROM MICHAEL, WITH SOME CLARIFICATIONS.

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.