The search for a queen

Just like buses, when three come along at once

As we took the lid off the first hive, all seemed so much calmer than two weeks ago when we found our two colonies queenless, angry and anxious.

Sensing all was right within the frames of our honeybees today, we inspected for brood, eggs, larvae and stores and most importantly looked for a newly hatched queen. We had left two queen cells intact the last time we inspected, (as the original monarchs had swarmed on the previous weekend), letting the bees create new queens from inside these waxy caps. As all was calm, it assured us that the pheromone from a new queen was most likely present and now it was a matter of finding her. Usually, a queen is marked by a beekeeper with a brightly coloured dot so she’s easy to spot. Of course in this situation, as the queen is newly hatched we have to find her. No easy task in a hive of over twenty thousand bees, and although she looks slightly different, it’s only vague. Like a living, moving, stinging game of ‘Where’s Wally’.