PRAISE BEE!!!!!

You may remember that the 3 honeybee colonies we received last year with such hopeful promise were all lost to us – one colony abruptly swarmed and left while the other two perished over the winter . . . ‘bee-grettably’ beekeepers across the country, and likely the world, are reporting this as an all-too-frequent occurrence. We remain committed to doing our small part so with OPEN ARMS we embraced two new honeybee colonies just this week! Our first beekeeping mentor Rev K and his granddaughter Ajyah were instrumental in this purchase from a new source, Doug Combs, from Phoenix. From the moment Joshua loaded our girls, they were calm and cooperative. They arrived about 6 pm so the first step was unloading “the bean transport carrier” into a sleepover in the honey shack. The nuc carriers measure about 2’ x 1’ and were so replete with honey that Vanessa’s group weighed in at about 40 lbs., while Stella’s came close to 50’! What a great start to success.

We installed Queen Vanessa and entourage first so we didn’t have to walk past the closer one with the other group. Queen Vanessa’s colony will live under the pine tree. First is an image of the boxes awaiting installation.

Queen Vanessa successfully settled in; Joshua tackled Queen Stella and her bruisers who were sooooooo cool that even though I was a mere 1’-2’ from them, I did NOT suit-up and no one even looked at me a second time – terrific sign of gentility.

We lucked out and spied BOTH queen’s but here is a close-up of Queen Stella. She is the one with the white dot on her much larger torso. This is only one of five frames in each nuc containing a conservative minimum of 2,000 honeybees each, all intent on protecting and serving their queen and especially the higher good of the community . . . perhaps we could send a message to Washington D.C.?

A few stragglers and lost folks were left in the nuc carriers but in just a little over an hour all girls were reunited and the nuc carriers were empty. By the way, if the stragglers are not reunited with the hive, they perish as they will not enter a strange hive nor will that hive accept them.

The very next day, we were overjoyed at the sight of folks leaving and more importantly entering the hives with pollen panties laden.

In order to pay homage to our newly coronated queens Stella and Vanessa, here are their namesakes. In tribute to our darling departed Miss Stella Jones, here she is with her auntie a couple of years ago, and Miss Vanessa May, a kindred guest on the day of the installations/coronations with her ‘main drone aka fiancée.’ Thanks to both beautiful ladies for imparting their amazing spirits into our BEELADIES. Onward and Upward!