Updates on Queen Lilibet and Queen Zazzala

Jerremie had a quick peek into Queen Lilibet and Queen Zazzala's hives on Friday night, during the break in the summer heat.

Queen Lilibet is doing well, laying her eggs in a nice pattern on the comb. The hive is expanding, filling up the really big top bar hive in our yard. Jerremie wanted to make sure that Queen Lilibet felt like she had lots of room, so he 'checkerboarded' the bars. This means that he took empty top bar pieces and put them between full top bar pieces. Hopefully, this will encourage the bees to stay in the hive and not swarm.

Queen Zazzala and her minions are not doing as well, as they have only managed to fill up half of their Langstroth long chest hive. We are not sure why this is happening. It could be that Queen Zazzala's just an easygoing kind of bee, taking her time with building and laying. We will try to keep a closer eye on the hive to make sure they make it to a point where they will survive the winter.

Well, that's all for our hive updates today. We do have an update on some other hives which we will publish in the next few days. Keep coming back for more updates and intros!

-Rita

Queen Faustina and Her Ladies Enjoy the Summer Sun

The beautiful Canada Day weather made it possible for our bee ladies to head out and gather some nectar and pollen. There was lots of bee activity around all our hives. We checked on Queen Faustina Oria Ricadonna's hive and found that she is doing a great job of laying her babies. Her ladies have built about two thirds of the frames in the brood box. Earlier in the day, the temperature in Queen Faustina's yard spiked, and her majesty booted a bunch of the worker bees out of the hive to cool things off. There were lots of bees in the air, which attracted our hosts' attention. We cracked the hive to give them some better ventilation. Unfortunately, the rainy weather has taken its toll on the hive cover, which has started to warp from the wet. We have ordered waxed covers to replace them this week. Here are some pictures of Jerremie checking Queen Faustina's hive on May 31, 2012. 

By the way, "Faustina Oria Ricadonna" means "Lucky, Golden, Ruler of All". Isn't that a great name for a queen?