A visit from Caroline

Lee and I were joined by Caroline, from the National Bee Unit team*, when we completed our weekly check today. Caroline was visiting to make sure our bees are healthy and pose no risk to other colonies and pollinators in the local area. She needed to do this check, because of the many cases of serious honey bee diseases in and around our district.

Fortunately, all was well. She was very impressed by how calm our bees were, even when she had to shake them off the frames of brood, to be able to carefully inspect the comb for any telltale signs of problems.

We caught our new queen and kept her safely in a clip whilst all the shaking of bees was happening. Didn’t want to risk losing her after the many trials of this season. When the inspection was completed, we let her run back onto the frames and take up where she had left off, laying eggs.

Queen clip: image courtesy of Thorne Beekeeping Supplies

The little colony continues to grow, with the queen now laying over 5 frames in the hive. We saw eggs, larvae and sealed brood today. Don’t forget to look carefully at the outer frames if you visit the bees at the museum, to see if you can spot each of these stages in the early life of a honey bee.

If you visit on Tuesday afternoons during the school holidays you can meet one of our Beekeeper by the Hive team, who will help you to find eggs, larvae and sealed brood and answer any questions you may want to ask. Keep an eye out for our new queen too, she is the longer, shapely, bee with a spot of green paint on her back (thorax). 

We are still collecting suggestions for a name for the new queen. Please tell museum staff what you think we should call her and leave details of your name and age and you will get a mention in the Bee Blog if your name is chosen.

*The National Bee Unit provides an amazing resource for all beekeepers in England and Wales who register their hives and apiaries