Last night we checked on the new queen and were pumped to see that the colony was minutes away from freeing her from her queen cage. Great news! The colony has accepted her now they’re ready to rock n roll.
We did not open the hives that have the queen cells. We were hoping they’re doing well and appreciative of our decision to not bother them.
Pig, the Wonder Cat, giving good vibes the night of the neck sting.
And then today we got a call – – a sighting of a ‘whole bunch of bees’ flying around in the vicinity of our hives. Our first thought was it’s the swarm that left with the old queen. But (!) then we remembered that a newly emerged queen needs to take a mating flight before she settles into the colony and starts laying eggs.
We’ve decided to NOT lament about the possibility of it being our swarm – as that’s about a hundred bucks of bees wandering around. Never mind that it’s highly unlikely we’d be able to catch them. And besides, now all our equipment is full now so we don’t have a place to put them… Instead, we’re employing the power of positive thinking and have decided it was a rare glimpse of a mating flight.
Who knew beekeeping is so complicated? *sigh*
Idiots Keeping Bees 