Queen Bee

We all have heard of the expression "Queen Bee", an expression to describe a dominant female.

The real "Queen Bee" in a beehive is not just a dominant female bee, it is the key to the survival of this hive.

Our favorite judge Eric of PA is teaching us a lesson in bee keeping. He says,

"The queen from the first hive I started with was getting old. I'm guessing she was probably about 5 years old. I noticed a lot of 'drones' in the hive.

A drone is a male bee, drones don't collect nectar or do any work in the hive. They are produced from an unfertilized egg. Since a queen only mates once in her life, after time she becomes unable to lay fertilized eggs, so she becomes a 'drone layer'. Ultimately, this can result in the death of a hive since they need worker bees to collect nectar and care for the brood (babies).

I ordered a new queen from GA, and once she arrived I removed the old queen from the hive. I will be checking on her some time next week to see how she is doing, but in the meantime, I want to give the hive time to adjust.

I've attached some photos of a couple hives, as well as the old and new queens. We've been getting a bumper crop of honey this spring. The hot/dry weather has allowed plenty of 'work time' for the bees to get out and gather nectar and pollen. On wet, cool, or rainy days they are not able to travel far or at all to gather food.

There is one hive where I put a new super (box filled with frames where they build come and store brood/honey) on a Saturday and by Thursday it was nearly full of honey! Everyone around here has noticed a marked increase in the productivity of their crops and gardens since we started maintaining bee hives here."

Eric also says, "2/3 of all the fruits and vegetables we eat MUST be pollinated by bees".

We thank Eric for teaching us about the bees; this is not only interesting but also vital in understanding how our fruits and vegetables are produced.