THE QUEENS ARE OUT

The other night, I had a dream about the hives.  Isn't it fascinating how something we've never dreamed about before suddenly becomes a part of our subconscious when we get it?  In my dream, I went to the hives and they were empty.  Not a bee around.  So of course, I started worrying, ha.  Then I started worrying about the queens and if they had gotten out of their cages.  

So, I asked my boss for a 1/2 day off today.  He's so wonderful and fair and he said of course I could take the time off, especially after I said it was to check the bees.  He's excited about the bees and everyone at the office is hoping for some honey at some future point. 

Queen bee in a cage

Here is one of the queens in her cage from the day I installed them in their hives.  You can see how she's in this little box and that white, fluffy stuff at one end is the candy sugar plug that she, and the other bees on the outside, eat through to get her out.  Sometimes (rarely) this doesn't work, so that's why I was worried.

So today I took a half day off and drove to the farm from work.  I decided to put on the bee suit (no sense in pushing my luck) and checked the hives...

Queen cages

...the queens were out!!!!  YAY!!!  The sugar plugs were completely gone and eaten (food for the bees!).  I removed them as they were stapled to the frame.  I pulled out the frame in one hive and I saw the queen moving around!  Such a thrilling moment.  She's got a bright yellow spot painted on her so she's easy to see.  Wherever she was moving, the workers were following closing behind.

Bees in the hive

They were even starting to build honeycomb near where the queen cage was (you can see that above).  I didn't want to mess with them too much, this early on, they should still be left alone for a bit longer.  I refilled the feeders with sugar water, removed those cages so they don't become part of the hive, and put the tops back on.  Things are looking good!

This weekend I'll check on them again.