Queens named

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Nannysbees

Drone Bee
Joined
Jun 8, 2020
Messages
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Location
Barry
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2
I know many of you have too many hives to name your queen's but have any Beeks given your queen bees a name? Two hives for us and ours are Daisy and Rosie, what are yours?
 
I've never named my queens but my first 30 hives were named after Old Testament matriarchs. Ruth, Judith, Eve, Keziah, Ester etc...... now having to start with boring numbers as I ran out of names.
 
I have 4 Hives.

My queens must earn their names. So far 3 have been named.

1. Queen Honey Monster (2nd gen Buck Open mated)
This gal is my favorite bee, she is 1 and 1/2 years old, older than my youngest boy! Her girls are so tame and super busy no matter the weather. She pulled in an amazing 152lb of honey last year, more than double the other 3 hives combined. If I get that much honey from all 4 hives combined this year, I will call it a good season and be very happy. I think I may have had some beginners luck and be chasing this record for the rest of my life.

2. Queen Tetchy (3nd gen Buck Open mated)
This one speaks for its self! Notibly more agressive than my other hives. I have never actually been stung by this hive, but they have attacked and needed repelling with smoke on a few occasions. I do have some concerns about her temperament and will be assessing and may take action in the spring.

3. Stripy bum The Tree Bee (2nd gen Buck Open mated)
Stripy is Honey Monsters sister and tetchys mum. I have been up a ladder twice to get this girl out of a tree. And she produced the black honey as seen in the right of my profile picture. I was told this honey is from tree blossom, probably chestnut. So in short, she has a stripy bum and likes trees.
 
Oh come on JBM, one of those must have earned a dearer place in your heart than a mere number? ;)

Mine all have ID numbers but some are just super special. Lagertha will be in her fourth season this year if she is still around.
 
I have never given a queen a name but my father once did..called one particular one TNT. Asa you will gather it had temperament 'issues'..he rewarded it by leaving the hive at the heather one year as even in near zero temps it was out stinging as you tried to close them up. This will be over 50 years ago btw. By January his memories of its antics had faded, he felt sorry for it and we went up in the snow and brought it home. Very black bees, very vicious, got a lot of honey. Died out a couple of years later.

Jolanta has names for some of her breeder queens...she is very soft hearted with them..will never kill them off. However if they do not meet her very fussy standards they get their marching orders back into the production apiaries.
 
My grandad use to name queen's.
Mine are named and numbered aldepending which apiary they are at and where they are from
CB19R01(M)
Cardigan Bay 2019 apiary name random 01.

Clee20R1(D)CB19(M).

As you can see above she is a daughter of CB19.
 
When I first started beekeeping I purchased my first hive and bees from a chap in Oxfordshire. He told me the queen was of Greek stock purchased from an imported based around Liverpool.
I therefore called her Helen after Helen of Troy. A lady in the village asked me if I would let her 16 year old son view the hive. He was a very clever boy, so I was told. I lent him a suit and gloves and showed him the inners of the hive. I told him the queen was Helen and the reason why. He had never heard of Helen of Troy or the Trojan wars. At the time I felt like an eccentric fool. A few years later, when he was at university he passed me in the street and said that he had felt so foolish he had gone home and looked up Helen of Troy.
 
Me and my Apiary friend decided to name our hives after space programs. First Nuc was Mercury, first Hive is Apollo. His daughter got to name the Queen however and went with British queens, so we have Boudicca.
Next hive I think will be Gemini.
 
Oh come on JBM, one of those must have earned a dearer place in your heart than a mere number?
No, no need for more than a number, you just know where your favourites are, Number 5 direct supersedure from the first queen I ever bought in and number 8 (which purely by happenstance has now ended up in the hive next door) the same, but from a Demarree'd daughter of 5. 47 is fast becoming a favourite as well, as is number 18 at Garn cottage who is the supersedure daughter of a right survivor and prolific queen
 
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