Sunday, 23 June 2013

16th June - Looking for Queen cells


Clematis, bluebell and Dracaena - just the flowers for busy bees on hot days.
Honeybees can be thought of as single organism - a "super-organism" whose method of reproducing is by swarming.
This splits the colony, some leaving the nest with the Queen, to set up a new colony.  The rest staying behind with the stores, the brood and a Queen cell or, if she has hatched, a virgin Queen.
QB checks for signs of swarming every 7/8 days at this time of year.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) I can't show you what a Queen cell looks like as none of my colonies are wanting to swarm yet.  I'll post a pic. on my blog when I find one.
Blue hive will be the first to start preparations.
Their Queen (2011) is running short of laying space - I spotted her trailing across the comb with an egg coming from her ovipositor - obviously looking for a cell to place it in.

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