THE UNVEILING OF OUR DEBUTANTS

All Hail! the arrival from the land of Saskatraz and presentation to the Coconut Island High Society Social Club of our newest Debs – Queens Sheba, Genevieve, and Cashmere.

Excitement was running at a zenith on 5/20/23 as we awaited the arrival of our newest honeybee colonies that are called ‘nucs’ as they constitute the nucleus of a hive – an established queen and her entourage. Our bee-wrangler and transporter, Adriel, picked up our new girls in Flagstaff but they actually hail from north of the Four Corners area so they had quite the journey. It has the potential for making anyone cranky but our Saskatraz ladies arrived unruffled and in regal fashion as we wrestled them one last time from the trunk of Adriel’s vehicle to their new and permanent homes behind the honey shack. Each nuc carrier weighed about 15 lbs.

Then began the process of hive-by-hive gently encouraging the colony members into their homes by first shaking the carrier lid over the box and then lowering the five frames of precious cargo into the box.

The entire operation took about an hour of the most amazing and miraculous interactions imaginable – no pinging, no drama, no upset. They peacefully established their sublime and sovereign kingdoms in short order! We checked back in on our new families several hours later and nearly everyone had gotten situated, then we celebrated!