Hive Notes

Today I named our three hives...Aphrodite, Beatrice, and Cynthia (A, B, and C for the unromantic). The Lord of Dragonwood refers to the hives by location, but location can change. Also, different hives do have different personalities, and I'd like to honor that. Besides, if Neil Gaiman can name his beehives and have people ask after them, I can, too.

For those familiar with Dragonwood, Aphrodite is the tall hive that sits at the edge of our property, facing the farmer's field. This year, we took some young brood from her to start a new hive (Beatrice). Shortly after that, we fretted because Aphrodite's queen didn't seem to be laying well. The bees knew she neared the end of her reign, so they made a new queen from one of the most recently laid eggs. Instead of a small bump over a pupa, we observed a peanut-sized structure surrounding the new queen-to-be. The next time we worked the hive, we saw the young queen, beautiful and full of eggs. She was lighter in color than her mother, and much fatter. The hive Aphrodite is now full of brood and honey. We put on a super, which is the part beekeepers use to collect honey for themselves. This is good news, as it means Aphrodite is socking away enough honey to last her through the winter, and shows no signs of stopping. Aphrodite's queen certainly is doing a fabulous job. We removed some messy cross-comb, too.

Beatrice is descended from Aphrodite's old queen, who managed to make it through the winter. We'd had another hive that seemed to be doing well, but was lost in a late-spring cold spell. Discouraged and nervous, the Lord and Lady of Dragonwood purchased pollen patties and sugar-water feeders. We believe feeding has helped Aphrodite become strong and Beatrice to take off. Beatrice's population rivals Aphrodite's. Although a bit smaller, they too work at filling their hive with honey. They had less pulled-out comb to start with, so they have a lot of work to do. However, we observed lots of capped brood, which are the pupae transforming into adult bees. Both Beatrice and Aphrodite have drones, the male bees, present. This means the hive is confident enough of their resources to produce males that do nothing but eat and maybe get the opportunity to mate with a virgin queen. In the fall, these guys will be kicked out to starve and freeze, because they have no value to a hive struggling to survive the winter. The Lord of Dragonwood remembers that splits in the past did not ramp up population so quickly, and is quite pleased with the effects of heavy feeding directly after making a split. We plan to feed another week or so, until the super we added has comb drawn out.

Cynthia is my baby. I split her off of Aphrodite all by myself, with the assistance of my friend J. I moved frames of young brood into a temporary cardboard hive, and took it under the eaves of the woods behind my new herb patch, right next to Beatrice. A day or two later, I transferred the frames and feeder into a hive body. The bees had already begun transforming a larva into a queen cell. Hooray! Today, Cynthia was full of life. Some of the capped brood that I moved has already hatched, and they are working very hard to keep their hive healthy. I cannot wait to meet their new queen.