Daughter Queens
For the umpteenth year, my bees swarmed.
At least I got a photograph before they went.
Before it happened, I had been congratulating myself on preventing swarms through timely interventions. A first artificial swarm on Queen Belladonna’s colony, carried out in April at the first sign of queen cells, divided her colony into three and gave us new daughter queens Gina and Hope. Then I did a second artificial swarm when queen cells reappeared in Queen Belladonna’s hive in May, but I must have missed a queen cell on the frame I left in the original colony that time. A swarm of bees appeared hanging in a tree in the apiary, co-inciding with the absence of Queen Belladonna from her hive. She didn’t hang around long enough for me to capture the swarm - they were off over the garden gate the same afternoon.
So, once again all my queens this summer are new. You have already met Queen Elizabeth. This is her cousin Queen Gina:
Queen Gina
Queen Hope looks similar to Queen Gina, perhaps a little darker. I don’t think I have a photo but you can be sure she’s beautiful.
And here’s my youngest, Queen Inez, who has succeeded Queen Belladonna in her original hive. You can see the eggs she’s been laying on that fresh white comb, and some newly capped honey stores at the top.
Queen Inez
Lastly, this video features Queen Flora. She was laying eggs in the comb when I lifted it out of the hive. She curved her abdomen right down to the bottom of each cell in turn, so you couldn’t see her long body at all. I had hoped to film her laying, but she stopped. Perhaps I interrupted her by lying the comb down to take the video, or maybe she had just completed laying that section of comb. You can see her walking around and maybe she’s checking for empty cells ready to receive an egg.
In 2025, I hope to boast to you that at least one of these 5 queens is still at Copper Bee Apiary. You’ll be able to track them here in our family tree.