Things Get More Interesting

Fans of the Dark Queen have asked where she went, and what has become of her now that there's a pretty, plump golden queen in the hive.  My first answer was fairly vague.  But tonight when looking to get better pictures of the new golden queen, instead I found my old friend!  She was busily going about her business, with a full court.

 Meanwhile, on the other side of the hive, the new golden queen put in a brief appearance before scooting out of the bright light.  So for the moment, there are 2 queens in one small observation hive.  The pictures don't do justice to how distinct the ladies are.  The old queen is quite dark, with light stripes down the side of her abdomen.   The new one is strikingly golden, without dark bands.  And yes, we did see both of them at the exact  same moment.

Better pictures of the golden queen with her court (next morning.)

A New Golden Queen!

The bees know what the bees need.  While I was noticing the diminished size and productivity of the original dark queen, the bees were doing something about it.  Yesterday when we were looking for the queen, we found the court surrounding a large golden queen, who was busily going along laying eggs in one cell after another.  The queen mother (the mother of the dark queen) was golden, so her coloration is a fun surprise, but reasonable.
Maybe I will get better pictures, but here is your first glimpse of the new royalty!  Perhaps I should name her George?

The design of this observation hive has the area between 2 frames hidden from view, providing the bees a sheltered environment away from light, and with greater temperature control.  Unless I take the hive outside to tend it, they can keep some secrets in there.  In this case, the secret appears to have been a nice supercedure cell.

Summertime, and the Livin' is Easy

The observation hive is doing great.  The queen busily laid the frames full of beautiful brood as the initial brood hatched out, and in June, they filled & capped the top 2 frames with honey in a quick week.  Basswood honey.  We added the honey super, and although a couple of bees went up & checked it out, they have not gone up there to work yet.  They are using the middle 4 medium frames for brood, and the queen and her court are not bashful about going along laying eggs while we watch.  They have drawn comb in the lower deeps, and had those filled with nectar last week.  This week they have hit a dearth, and have eaten all that nectar!  While that does give the queen the opportunity to move down there and lay eggs, it also gives me an indication that the hives in the bee yard are hungry now too, and not producing.

The queen looks smaller.  I am wondering what that bodes for the future.  She is just over a year old, but was raised as an emergency replacement when I first loaded the bees and frames of brood last March, and barely had one day to go out for a mating flight.  It was snowing on the days around that one sunny one!  She has done a beautiful job, considering, and still has lovely brood.