Hobby and Craft Corner

Is the queen bee with the blue dot on the 2nd picture? 

Very fascinating!

If lounging around in the garden with a book and a very rare beer is a hobby, I'm all in today

Yes there’s a difference one on the other with a yellow dot.

The blue one is my favourite she was my first one and if she as made though winter will be 5 years old which is as long as they can live. The queen that is all other only live a few weeks.

cheers  Patrick enjoy 

Yes me too please 

 it is a lovely basket. Hats of to you

love Angie and Lilly xx

Hello, how is the new Queen Bee selected? What is the factor that makes her more special than the worker ones. Genetics or luck ? Xx

love Angie and Lilly xx

Morning Angie &Lilly,

The new Queen is not selected she was always going to be one,however it’s the worker bees that decide that a new queen is needed.They decide they need a new queen for 3 reasons.

To Swarm this is when it’s time to expand and 1 hive becomes 2 hives,if the old queen dies and to supersede usually when the old queen gets older.

As long as the hive has fresh eggs less than 5days old they can produce new queen.They build a special cell round an egg then after 5 days they change what the egg is feed,all are feed Royal jelly at first then a worker is fed bee bread.

If you look at the picture the cells that look like peanut shells all have a new queen inside.

Hope this makes sense.

Ian

Hi Ian this is so interesting, bee bread?  Your original queen bee, will this be her last year as she is now 5?  Do you have to feed them in the winter?  My husbands two uncles and have lots of hives in South Africa, they sell the honey.  This is a funny confession, I have never tried honey.

Lee 2 x

Hi Lee 2

Bee bread, is a mixture of pollen and nectar the pollen gives them protein and nectar carbohydrates.

My original (Tracy the only one with a name) definitely belongs in this group. At the end of last year I took her out of her hive and put her into a small one Which gives her the best chance of getting through the winter.However at the time she didn’t look very well.I will know if she survived mid to late April.

In the winter I feed with fondant at other times of the year you feed sugar and water. It all depends on the weather really as to how often they can get out to forage and how many stores they have.

You must try some honey but not what you can buy in the supermarket it’s not pure and the cheap stuff is not honey,find a local beekeeper.

Ian

Hi Ian,

Thank you for all the information I never knew it was so interesting.  I really hope that Tracy made it through the winter.  Will the honey from a local farm shop be pure do you think

Lee 2 x