...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.