New queen settling in
- Linda
- Aug 18
- 1 min read
2025 Cliffe Castle Bee Blog #8
Lee and I found our new queen to be laying on 4 frames in the colony at today’s inspection (18th August). There is a small patch of sealed brood on one of the outer frames, so if you visit this week, you may be lucky enough to see a brand-new baby bee nibbling her way out of her birth cell.
If the queen is about there will be no risk of you missing her. Lee’s photo clearly shows that I made a proper mess of marking her last week! She’s a very good-looking queen underneath all that “make-up” though.
Our little colony has plenty of stores (nectar and pollen), so there is no need to worry. A warning call went out last week that some hives of bees are getting very lo
w on food stores, with a risk of the colonies starving unless the beekeeper gives them some spare frames of stores, or some sugar syrup. It’s important not to mix up frames filled with sugar syrup with those to be extracted for the honey crop. Sugar syrup is not honey!
Andy Brown will be our Beekeeper by the Hive this week and next, he’ll be ready to answer your questions and explain what’s happening on the combs on Tuesday afternoons. Don’t forget to let the staff at the museum know your suggestions for a name for our new queen. The competition is definitely on now.
Linda
