I’ve been under enormous pressure all summer to continue with my Waxsbees blog and I really haven’t had the time – so an enormous apology to all my fans (that will be Hattie) for the delay. The good news is, that I’m back and there is a lot to write about - do feel free to take mini-breaks along the way but do come back – who knows there maybe something of interest in here somewhere for you. Alternatively, I might get bored myself and just drift off in mid sentence never to be heard from again.
So what’s been the question on the lips of ALL OF MY IRRITATING FRIENDS (you know who you are) every time I see them? And, what are YOU thinking right now? Where’s the honey? Well, it’s a long story…..
It all started again during late March. My friend and bee-mate, Jim, who put two hives in my garden last year, came over to see if we had survived the winter – the bees that is. On a warm sunny day we opened up the hives and inspected the frames. We were both enormously relieved to find that there were still living bees in both brood boxes and there also must have been a queen in both – we didn’t see either but the evidence was there in the shape of neatly arranged egg, larvae and capped larvae cells on the frames – as the queen is the only one that can lay eggs – we knew she was in there somewhere. Remember the Where’s Wally books, and latterly Where’s Bin Laden (but they found him now) – well looking for a sole queen bee in amongst thousands of worker bees is pretty much impossible. Unless the queen is marked.
All was fine and dandy and for the next week or so Jim could be heard happily humming his Winnie the Pooh songs in anticipation of jars and jars of honey.
The first horror that hit us was about three weeks’ later. Once again Jim and I inspected the hives and this time we found that something was not quite right in one of his hives. By mid April we expected to see a perfectly formed brood pattern on the frames with larger capped brood dotted around the frame in clusters. These larger capped brood cells are home to the developing drone larvae – hatching out as the larger broader male bees or drones. The queen is the only female bee in the hive that mates and lays both fertilized (resulting in female worker bees) and unfertilized eggs (the drones). Sometimes the queen runs out of fertilized eggs and can only lay unfertilized ones. Sometimes, the queen dies or is mistakenly squished during a hive inspection, then the worker bees start to lay eggs themselves but, of course, they can only lay drones. So on the sunny day in April, the frames of FHTBL2011 (First Hive To Be Lost 2011) showed only drone cells and they were in a very haphazard pattern suggesting laying workers. Jim and I went into a thinking frenzy and tried some really ridiculous ideas that only those new to bees would do. As time went by the laying workers got quite angry and attacked us frequently. So, with heavy hearts and less humming, Jim carried his hive away and dumped the bees out and left them to die. No other option. RIP FHTBL2011.
Hey, but out with the old, in with the new, my bees were ready to be collected from Paynes – oh happy days.
So what’s been the question on the lips of ALL OF MY IRRITATING FRIENDS (you know who you are) every time I see them? And, what are YOU thinking right now? Where’s the honey? Well, it’s a long story…..
It all started again during late March. My friend and bee-mate, Jim, who put two hives in my garden last year, came over to see if we had survived the winter – the bees that is. On a warm sunny day we opened up the hives and inspected the frames. We were both enormously relieved to find that there were still living bees in both brood boxes and there also must have been a queen in both – we didn’t see either but the evidence was there in the shape of neatly arranged egg, larvae and capped larvae cells on the frames – as the queen is the only one that can lay eggs – we knew she was in there somewhere. Remember the Where’s Wally books, and latterly Where’s Bin Laden (but they found him now) – well looking for a sole queen bee in amongst thousands of worker bees is pretty much impossible. Unless the queen is marked.
All was fine and dandy and for the next week or so Jim could be heard happily humming his Winnie the Pooh songs in anticipation of jars and jars of honey.
The first horror that hit us was about three weeks’ later. Once again Jim and I inspected the hives and this time we found that something was not quite right in one of his hives. By mid April we expected to see a perfectly formed brood pattern on the frames with larger capped brood dotted around the frame in clusters. These larger capped brood cells are home to the developing drone larvae – hatching out as the larger broader male bees or drones. The queen is the only female bee in the hive that mates and lays both fertilized (resulting in female worker bees) and unfertilized eggs (the drones). Sometimes the queen runs out of fertilized eggs and can only lay unfertilized ones. Sometimes, the queen dies or is mistakenly squished during a hive inspection, then the worker bees start to lay eggs themselves but, of course, they can only lay drones. So on the sunny day in April, the frames of FHTBL2011 (First Hive To Be Lost 2011) showed only drone cells and they were in a very haphazard pattern suggesting laying workers. Jim and I went into a thinking frenzy and tried some really ridiculous ideas that only those new to bees would do. As time went by the laying workers got quite angry and attacked us frequently. So, with heavy hearts and less humming, Jim carried his hive away and dumped the bees out and left them to die. No other option. RIP FHTBL2011.
Hey, but out with the old, in with the new, my bees were ready to be collected from Paynes – oh happy days.
