By Ian Northrop, Arcadia Bee Keeper and Volunteer
Edited by Marsha Johnston, Arcadia Farm Education Volunteer
Several days after putting the queen cage in the hive, I
returned to Arcadia to check in on the new queen bee. She had not made it out of her cage, so I
removed the sugar plug and laid the cage on its side so she could walk into the
hive.
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This really was a moment of truth. I wasn’t sure whether the
bees would accept and begin to take care of her, or whether they would attack and
kill her.
Amazingly, they quickly surrounded her and began to clean
and feed her. Success! The adjacent picture shows the moment she entered
the hive (she is marked with a white dot on her back) and you can see how the other
bees are already beginning to line up to take care of her.
I watched this for
about 15 minutes – it really was fascinating.
I closed the hive and decided to come back in a few days to on
everyone’s progress.
Over the next two weeks I checked on the hive twice. On the second visit, I was excited to see
great evidence the new queen was reigning supremely. The “brood frame” at left is a collection of
larvae and baby bee cells – the vaguely oval-shaped capped cell area in the center
of the frame. This hive had not had
brood like this since I originally inspected it.
Sometimes introducing a new queen can be tricky. Since this was my first time attempting it, I
asked several folks for advice on the process.
Karl from Hunter Apiaries, who doesn’t know me at all, spent about 30 minutes
walking me through the process while I took notes over the phone. I believe several of his tips made this a
success. His company also has one of the
nicest beekeeping websites I’ve seen: http://hunterapiaries.com/. Thanks to Karl for the help!
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