No help from Kola!

Two gallons for starters

Freddie Mercury was the only hive to produce enough honey to share. We decided to make some mead or honey wine. Since I have never had a drink of alcohol, I reserve all taste testing to my wife. She’s happy to help!

Thank you Freddie Mercury of Queen/ Queen Freddie, for being the only hive to produce any kind of honey this year.

Just enough to bee creative and leave enough for Freddie to make it through the Winter!

This is Queen Angela. I don’t know what happened to her. In my previous posts, Queen Angela was a captured swarm, my first one.

This was a pretty large swarm, I thought. Talking to the experts I’ve learned a few things could have gone wrong. Queen Angela, since she is prone to swarm, may have swarmed again. She could be a virgin queen and not laying fertile eggs. I don’t think that’s the cause because a bee  was laying eggs when I placed the frames in the new hive.  She could have died off or been eaten during a mating flight. Whatever the cause, this is the result. Weakly populated frames:

Another suggested cause is these plastic frames, Black in color. I tried these because the Black background makes it easier to see the eggs. I just don’t think they like the plastic. My next move is to (try) combine Queen Angela’s hive with Queen Victoria. God save her!