..Behold, Sir*
A FRIEND of ours is interested in beekeeping so we took him to the apiary the other day all suited and booted for a close inspection of the hives. As with all new comers the queen was the focus of interest and there's always fierce competition between me and hubby in spotting Her Highess.
All seven of our queens are clearly marked with coloured dots on their back usually reflecting the year of their birth ie. Green is for 2014 and Red is for those queens born in 2013, although two of our queens have yellow dots as their previous owner was colour blind and yellow made it easier for him to locate the queen in the hive.
Despite the dot it can still be difficult to find the queen and our experience is that she usually hangs around the edge of the frame. He-who-should-be-obeyed-but-rarely-is was full of himself as he took the lead and inspected each frame and while we had a degree of success in locating each queen, when we came to one of the hives we simply could not find her.
As we went through each hive I noticed the bees from one of the first hives we checked seemed to be in turmoil and after about 15 minutes were swirling around in a real bad mood. Suddenly hubby dropped his superior attitude and asked meekly: "Is that a queen, on me?" Our friend and I both looked and sure enough, scurrying across his face veil was a queen bee sporting a red dot.
The queen is essential for evoking a sense of well being and calm within the hive and she gives of a scent called pheremones to ensure order within the colony is kept. If she disappears her absence is quickly noticed and soon the usually hum of a hive can turn rapidly into a frenzied buzz.
As we looked down the apiary it wasn't difficult to spot the queen-less colony as a mini revolution looked set to explode from Hive Number 2 and so we returned her and calm was soon restored.
* Act 5, Scene 2 Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare.
 |
QUEEN: Essential
to keeping order
|
All seven of our queens are clearly marked with coloured dots on their back usually reflecting the year of their birth ie. Green is for 2014 and Red is for those queens born in 2013, although two of our queens have yellow dots as their previous owner was colour blind and yellow made it easier for him to locate the queen in the hive.
Despite the dot it can still be difficult to find the queen and our experience is that she usually hangs around the edge of the frame. He-who-should-be-obeyed-but-rarely-is was full of himself as he took the lead and inspected each frame and while we had a degree of success in locating each queen, when we came to one of the hives we simply could not find her.
As we went through each hive I noticed the bees from one of the first hives we checked seemed to be in turmoil and after about 15 minutes were swirling around in a real bad mood. Suddenly hubby dropped his superior attitude and asked meekly: "Is that a queen, on me?" Our friend and I both looked and sure enough, scurrying across his face veil was a queen bee sporting a red dot.
 |
YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED: Queens can be difficult to spot
hence the reason most beekeepers mark Her Maj with a dot
|
Quite clearly she had jumped on him during a frame inspection ... while he was coveting each frame he inspected before showing us what he had found, one must have brushed too closely too his chest forcing the queen to jump off and hitched a ride.
Why she didn't fly off him and return to the hive is a mystery to me although I'm sure a more experienced keeper will give an explanation. Queens usually fly at least twice - once to mate and another to swarm and find a new hive to move the colony.
I'm just thankful he didn't squash her - some beekeepers have been known to drop the queen from a frame by accident, which is why frame inspection should always be done over the main body of the hive.
For this very reason I don't clip the wings of queens although some beekeepers do to ensure she never flies off from the hive.I'm just thankful he didn't squash her - some beekeepers have been known to drop the queen from a frame by accident, which is why frame inspection should always be done over the main body of the hive.
The queen is essential for evoking a sense of well being and calm within the hive and she gives of a scent called pheremones to ensure order within the colony is kept. If she disappears her absence is quickly noticed and soon the usually hum of a hive can turn rapidly into a frenzied buzz.
As we looked down the apiary it wasn't difficult to spot the queen-less colony as a mini revolution looked set to explode from Hive Number 2 and so we returned her and calm was soon restored.
* Act 5, Scene 2 Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare.
No comments:
Post a Comment