Queen Maureen
Back in April, when swarm season burst upon us, I split Queen Flora’s colony to pre-empt swarming, moving most of the brood to a new hive next door to their mother. They have raised a new queen who is now mated and laying: Queen Maureen!
Top of Queen Maureen’s brood box
They are still a small young colony. I have united them with the bees of a cast swarm from Queen Elizabeth’s hive, which we collected from the hedge (the first cast swarm, pictured in the gallery on 25 April 2024). Those bees and their brood are in a box above Queen Maureen’s brood box so there is an “upstairs, downstairs” arrangement of two families in one hive, divided by a queen excluder. The bees should unite as one colony under Queen Maureen.
Not Queen Maureen
As a rule, a colony can only have one queen. So before uniting them, I removed the queen from the cast swarm, keeping her in a cage in my pocket until I found Queen Maureen. And then…her spirit left its earthly cage and rose into the heavens, to dwell with the angels and spirits of all past bees.