A Surprise In The Bee Yard

I had quite a surprise when I went out to disassemble my bee hives at the Greensboro Science Center last week.  After discovering that the hives were gone I decided to take apart the hive components and start with new ones this spring.  When I’d checked and found that the bees were gone I had also seen a small handful of bees in the top super of one of the hives.  After peeking down further and not seeing anything going on I closed up the hive, knowing I’d be back in a few days.

Aware of the possibility that those few bees may still be there I carefully lifted off their lid.  There were still a few bees meandering around but with a particular busyness.  The way the worker bees were moving about caused me to pause and my instincts told me to look for a queen – doubtful that there would be one.  SURPRISE! Can you imagine my astonishment upon seeing a queen?  It was one of those moments where you see what you see and then you second guess what you saw only to know you saw it!  I gently pulled out the frame and watched for a minute and sure enough the queen was there.  She looks to be young and maybe not fertilized yet.

Honestly I am still questioning if what I saw was really a queen.  Chandra Metheny, the GSC horticulturist and my colleague was in the apiary with me. I immediately called her over to be a second set of eyes and she too saw a queen. I’m going to play it safe and say “the jury is still out” until I can open this hive again. Now I am dependent on the weather cooperating and giving me a warm, sunny day to go take another peek.

She isn’t totally visible in the photos but this is the little colony and their miracle queen, or should I say, “Queen Miracle”? This will become her name if she survives. I can’t say for sure how they came to be.  It’s possible the old queen succumbed to whatever killed the hives.  When this happens the worker bees know it and begin to nurture a queen cell to produce a new monarch.  I don’t feel like this is the same queen that was in the hive when I closed them up for the winter.  It is hard for me to say she was old and unproductive considering she was installed last year. What I do know is that the bees were behaving as they do when they are tending to a queen.

To learn more about these interesting creatures read this post – Take A Peek Inside A Bee Hive.    

In the photo above you can see the queen perfectly. (this is a photo of one of my previous queens) She is the one with the larger black leathery looking spot behind her eyes – that is one indication – also her abdomen is longer and pointed at the end – the second piece of evidence I picked up on when I saw Queen Miracle (fingers crossed).

Cross your fingers and send good thoughts to Queen Miracle and her ladies.  They are small so they will need to survive the remainder of winter.  It is predicted to go into the 20’s at night this week.  I took the hive down to 2 “boxes”, one hive body and one super.  This will make it easier for them to keep their hive warm enough – 95*F.  They have plenty of honey capped and ready to be eaten too.  That is all I can do for them at this time.  Fingers, legs, toes and eyes crossed for a miracle!