Here is the Queen Bee: well almost!
In May, in Southwestern Ohio, we start looking for queen bee cells. It is pretty cool to find some and place them in a new super which will soon become a working bee hive, doubling the number of colonies in our back yard.
Look towards the middle of the picture below, just above the clump of bees; you’ll notice a cell that looks like a mushroom the size of a thumb…that is the queen cell. The worker bees are surrounding this cell getting ready to feed her royal jelly. That bee byproduct alone will turn this cell into a working queen.
Identifying the Male Drones
Now, look at the cells to the right of the queen cell…those are drone cells; the males. To my knowledge, this colony of bees will not need this many drones because the males are needed only for mating with the queen. They basically have no other function. In fact after mating, the drones die! Poor guy…
Identifying the Baby Bees
The cells to the left of this queen cell are called brood: babies that are in an embryonic state. They will hatch to become workers, flyers or some other sort of production worker for the functioning colony. Bee hives are very organized and function as a systematic community that contain leaders and followers.
Supporting the New Bee Hive
We will feed these new hives sugar water to encourage egg laying by the new queen. The new hives will soon be opened up the first of June. We are looking for a healthy queen and proper egg production-2,000 plus eggs a day. More eggs mean more bees..YAY!
I will announce an update next month. Cross your fingers!
Bee Honey Healthy Now 