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2025: Cliffe Castle Bee Blog #7

Can you believe that it has taken from 5 May to 4 August to finally find a laying queen in our little colony? In between these dates, we have added two test frames of eggs and larvae to check whether a queen was present and provide the house bees with the means to begin to raise a new queen if not. This new queen has come from the second test frame, added on 7 July.

The weather forecast for today was very poor, due to Storm Floris, so we didn’t want to keep the hive open for any longer than necessary. As soon as Steve and I saw eggs on one side of one frame, we just put all the frames back into place. So, we haven’t looked for the new queen yet, but know she is there and has mated because we saw eggs.

Next week, Anthony and I will look for the new queen and mark her, with a blue dot – this year’s colour. From Tuesday 12 August visitors may be lucky enough to see her on the outer frames of the hive.

With a new queen in residence, we can hold another Name the New Queen Competition for the summer holidays 2025. If you would like to suggest a name for her, please tell the museum staff before you leave the building. If you can give them your name, age and the name you think she should be called, they will make a note of it for us. We will choose a winner before the end of the school holidays, and I will share details in a future bee blog.

If you have any questions about the honey bees at Cliffe Castle, don’t forget that there will be a Beekeeper by the Hive on Tuesday afternoons 1.30 to 3.30pm until the end of the summer holidays. On 5^th August it will be John, on 12 August it will be Louise, Andy on August 19 and 26, with 2 September slot still to be confirmed.

The Observation Hive Beekeeping Team 2025 is:

Steve, Lee, Anthony and Linda, with help from Mike as needed.