The Queen receives her crown

Finishing the whole procedure with a florish Timothy the beekeeper put a bright green dot on the queen’s head. The green dot was het crown and made her stand out from the other bees. ‘There you are! In two weeks I will come back to check on their progress.’ And with that Timothy and Amanda left me alone with the bees. I was over the moon with having the bees in the Polranny Pirates’ garden. It was as having a vegetable patch: making the space useful and adding something to its core value.

The Queen gets her wings clipped

Timothy the Beekeeper took out a pair of old fashioned bended nail scissors and clipped the queen’s wings. ‘Now she cannot fly anymore. When another new queen gets born and this one leaves the hive to swarm she won’t get very far,’ he grinned. Our neighbour had bees and once one of his queens followed by a swarm landed with us. We weren’t home at the time and before my neighbour had located the errant queen, she had established herself under the roof of the porch, between the ceiling and the roof covering. He never managed to get her out and for years when it got hot in the summer we could smell the honey.(photo Amanda Stevens)

Ring around the Queen Bee

Once Timothy and Amanda had found the queen, they placed a metal ring around her. The metal ring had spikes on the underside that fixed it to the combs. Now the queen was isolated from the other bees and helpless. The beekeeper could perform his evil deed on her.

Looking for the Queen

The swarms in the starter hives were new. The bees were still small in numbers and the queen bee had not yet been identified. That was what happened next. Beekeeper Timothy Stevens took out every single one of the frames that hung inside the hive. He and Amanda studied the bees on them carefully till they recognized the queen. Which one of the thousands of bees was the queen? To me they all looked the same. ‘But the queen has a longer thorax,’ Timothy said. ‘That is how she distinguishes herself from the others.’

The tools of the trade

By now the bees should be settled into the new environment and it was time to see how they had come out of hibernation and identify the queen. Timothy opened the styrofoam starter hive first. Next he put out the tools of the trade: an old-fashioned pair of rounded nail clippers, a metal ring with spikes and a marker pen. (photo Amanda Stevens)

The Pirate that was mistaken for a tree

While Timothy and Amanda Stevens were busy with opening up the starter beehives I watched. I was so curious I could hardly contain myself. I wanted to be there on top of what was happening. Slowly but surely I crept closer. Strange thing was, the bees did not pay me any attention while they were crawling all over Timothy. ‘Because you are standing next to the tree they think you are part of it’, Timothy laughed. Ah well, just a new angle on tree hugging so it is.(photo Amanda Stevens)

Amanda and Timothy Stevens in Beekeeper's suits

On April ninth the white van drove up again. This time Timothy the beekeeper was accompanied by his wife Amanda. Both got into white beekeeper’s suits complete with mesh hoods. It made them look like space travellers. Very impressive. They asked if I wanted to wear a suit too or at least a hood. I declined. I intended to stay far away enough not to be in bees way. But I did take my old mobile phone with the trusted camera along.