...don't rush me

First off, I am excited to announce that the other hive took to their queen. Queen Penelope is right at home and laying lots of new baby workers!

Queen Cassandra is taking her sweet time with laying eggs. Last week when inspecting her hive, I noticed the same roaring sound that I found in my second hive when the queen was gone. There were no fresh eggs and only capped drone cells. Bad news. I was crushed, and immediately began what I can only call freaking out. I called around to find a replacement queen, but everyone was sold out! What to do?!? Eventually, I was able to get the supplier on the phone. He calmly walked me through what I saw and how I was inspecting the bees. He also asked if the bees were still collecting pollen. They were. He said that the bees would have stopped collecting pollen if she were gone. To discover Cassandra's existence, I took a frame of fresh eggs out of Queen Penelope's hive and placed it in Queen Cassandra's hive. The bees will supersede the queen if she is hurt or missing with these new eggs.

Transferring that frame of eggs was so stressful. I looked and looked at that frame to ensure that Queen Penelope was not on it. She was just beginning to be successful, and I dreaded the fact that I was doing something that risked hurting or losing her. I smoked the frame and brushed the bees back into the hive to clear the frame of bees. I replaced the frame with a new one and took the frame with eggs to Queen Cassandra's hive.

I went into Queen Cassandra's hive today to check for queen cells or new eggs. I didn't see either or those things. The bees had capped some of the brood as workers, but there was no evidence of trying to replace the queen. As I continued through the hive, I didn't find any more brood, but I did find the elusive Queen Cassandra. So she is alive and well, but in no rush to make my life easier.

My next step is to check back for eggs or queen cells in the next few days. Below are some photos of Queen Penelope and Queen Cassandra.

...off with her head

About two weeks ago, I checked in on the queens to ensure they had been released. One Queen, Cassandra, had been properly released. The other queen was still in her cage and all of her workers had died. The sugar had not been eaten through and the dead worker bees were blocking the exit. I decided to directly release her into the hive. The bees were not clinging to her cage usually indicating that they have accepted her scent.

A week later, I went back into the hives to check for a laying queen in both hives. Queen Cassandra had been busy. There were eggs and larva filling a full frame. The other hive had no evidence of a laying queen. Not sure what happened to her, but it probably had to do with being directly released

On Tuesday, I visited the bee store. I bought a new queen and started the 45 minute trek home. By the time I had driven 30 minutes, I noticed that there was no movement in the queen cage. Upon closer inspection, all the workers were dead. The queen was alive, but I wasn't about to risk putting a queen with no workers into my hive. Back to the bee store I went. They were great and replaced the queen.

This queen and her workers made it home safe and sound. The really interesting thing about a queenless hive is the sound they make when you open the box. It is a loud roar for lack of a better term. When I placed the new queen into the middle frame, the bees moved quickly to cover her cage and the roar ceased. This is by far the coolest thing I have seen happen in a bee hive. It looked like a wave of bees just rushing to greet the new queen. I will be sure to video it if I ever have to replace a queen again.

I will be back in the hive next Monday to check on progress. Of course, I will let you all know. Below is a photo of the dead workers. You can see that they are all piled up at the bottom blocking the exit.