Reminder

This post will hopefully serve as a reminder of two things. #1: Never go out to my bee yard without my camera. And #2: Never go out without a hat. I have long hair, and bees can get amazingly tangles in it. It would also help to remember that flipping the hair around does not free said trapped be, but merely ensnares it more. I'm lucky I didn't get a stinger to the scalp. Although, I can tell I'm getting much more comfortable with the bees because never once did the bee in my hair cause me any heightened blood pressure. I simply went about my business with it's buzzing in my ear, and eventually it figured out a means of escape, and flew off. Sweet.


So I've already been out to check on the hives twice today. The first time was just after sunrise, say 7-ish and everyone was still sleeping. Now it's 11:30 and thing are a buzzing at the entrances. Well, one entrance anyway. The new swarm is coming and going like crazy. I didn't see any pollen on their legs, but I was only out there about five minutes. (The kids were in the house reading books.) The older hive looked deserted. I go it a bad feeling in my tummy as I stood there and only saw one bee return to the hive in the same amount of time I saw about 30 bees come and go at the other. Oh crap.


Today is the first good weather day in a a few so I had planned on suiting up, lighting the smoker, and doing a thorough inspection of the older hive when I got all the kids asleep. But, Lola has been taking a killer morning nap, and I didn't think I'd get another chance to go out there. I figured I might as well just take a little peek inside and see what I could see. That's when I got the bee in the hair.


Sadly, there wasn't much to look at. Most of the comb in there that had last been filled with bees and nectar looked empty and abandoned. All the bees that were in there we between two combs guarding a queen cell. Oh frick. Regina Apis is dead. I didn't get to see if they had anything to eat or if there was any capped brood (which would indicate reinforcements will soon be born to bolster their flagging numbers.) There were not very many bees in there at all... a couple hundred at the most. I hope there is an army out foraging, because the home fires are dwindling.


As far as I can tell, I have two options at this point. Let nature run it's course and see if they can hatch a new queen. She would have to successfully take her mating flight and make it back to the hive before she could even begin to lay. If Regina Apis died on Mother's Day May 8th and they made the Queen cell on May 9th there wouldn't be a chance of new eggs till May 30th or June 1st. It takes a little more than two weeks for a virgin queen to emerge from her cell and about another week for her to take her mating flights. I'm not sure there are enough bees left to hold out that long. (I could order a new queen through the mail, but I'm ruling that out because of the tiny population of the hive.)


The only other option I see is to destroy the queen cell and combine the hives. The swarm sure could use the comb any any stores from Regina's colony. Plus, it was a small swarm to begin with, and some more bees would help them I think. Then of course, the other bees sure could use a queen. I'm just not sure how to do it. If I moves the comb and the bees on the comb to the other hive would the bees out foraging be able to find their relocated sister? I have some research to do...