Competition time!

2024 Cliffe Castle Bee Blog #12

On Monday 1st July, guest Observation Hive Team member, Mike Latham, kindly stood in for Lee, who was poorly. This visit was to check whether and how well our second new queen of season was laying.

Happily, she has mated successfully and begun her life’s task of boosting colony numbers. We found that she had laid eggs across 7 frames in the 9-frame box! Over the next weeks we will have to keep an eye on how much space she has, to lay more eggs. We can replace a frame of stores with a frame of wax foundation, so that the house bees can draw some comb to make more room for her to lay.

If the weather is good on Monday 8th July, Lee and I will probably catch and mark our new queen to make her easier to see on the frames. This year, we mark queens green.

It will soon be time for the school summer holidays and we will have a beekeeper by the hive on Tuesday afternoons until early September. If you look closely at the frames in the Observation Hive, you might just catch a glimpse of the new queen on an outer frame. The green dot on her thorax will help you spot her.

In the meantime, here is a photo of the 2024 queen, taken this week by Mike Latham, as we saw her on the frame.

We need a name for this 2024 green queen. Can you think of one? Let the staff at the front desk have your suggestion, along with your name, and we will choose the one that seems to suit her best. I will put your name and the name you suggested for the queen into a bee blog during the summer holidays. Good luck!

Linda

(The Observation Hive Team 2024 is Steve, Mike B, Lee, Linda and Anthony, with occasional help from Mike L. We are all members of Airedale Beekeepers Association)