The weather

Finally the weather turned and the bees and I are out and about in the garden, And if that isn’t enough the flowers have joined us too. Everywhere things are in bloom. Not the planted variety but the things that grow in the grass whether you like it or not. According to Timothy the beekeeper worker bees visit around a 100 flowers a day. It would seem that there is enough for everybody. But after the cold spring the bees are in a feeding frenzy. They do not tolerate anybody else around and least of all me. I used to put one of those easy to fold chairs out in front of the hives about ten meters away and watch the activity as I would watch the tv: but not anymore. A defending bee is send out and first starts to annoy me and if I stay put to attack me. Now they even come after me as I’m weeding my veggie patch, well out of sight and the way. This picture of the new additions to the hives I took just before I was stung in the eyebrow. And me writing a blog about the little feckers… No gratitude!

Virgin queens

Queens are raised in specially constructed queen cells that start out as queen cups. Queen cups are larger than the cells in a normal brood comb. Once the reigning queen lays eggs in the queen cups the worker bees start building it up. As the young queen larva pupates the workers cap the cell with beeswax. The new Virgin Queen lifts the cap off when she is ready to emerge. By then the reigning queen has usually left the colony in a huff with a swarm. As soon as the old queen has left the hive a palace revolution breaks out with different virgin queens vying for supremacy. During the revolution the virgin queens are all over the colony restlessly seeking out the competition. For the beekeeper it is a nightmare trying to find and isolate them before they sting each other to death. Nature has provided the virgin queens with a stinger without the usual barbs making it possible for them to sting more than once without dying. The colony remains in swarm mode till all but one virgin queen have left or are killed leaving the hive depleted. Again it is the movies that my imagination turns to: The Virgin Suicides (1999) by Sofia Coppola, but most of all Harem Suare (1999) by Ferzan Ozpetek (Polranny Pirates collection). It is not so much that the movies spin a similar tale, but that the world of the bees is still completely unreal to me. I take to anything that even vaguely puts me on firm ground.