All hail the queen!

After Saturday's super disappointing discovery that my girls did not successfully raise a queen, I became the busy bee and started searching for a local source to find a replacement. Bee Guru had already given me a couple names so I emailed them first, and Google gave me a few more. I got one "nope, no queens here" and nothing else until last night. A local place said "yep, come get one tomorrow". Hurray!!!

So today after work, I went to this bee paradise and happily bought a queen. Beekeeping will make you do things you never thought you would, like pay $35.. For. A. Bug.

He asked if I wanted her marked or not, and I of course said marked because I have enough trouble finding the queen, I'll take all the help I can, plus it's kinda like she's wearing a little crown. Also, she has already done the dirty and is mated and ready to begin laying eggs!

So dear readers, I present you, our lovely queen!

I'm sorry it's a terrible picture of the queen, but a decent picture of the screen.

There she is in her royal carriage with her royal servants. Ok, it's a little wooden box with some nurse bees in there with her. Their job is to clean her and take car of her until she emerges into the hive.

The white block is candy.. some kind of sugar candy. Over the next two days, the other bees (both those inside with her, and the other bees in the hive) will eat through the candy, revealing a hole in the box and she will emerge into the hive. During the next two days, my bees will learn her scent and accept her as their queen. When she emerges, she will check out the hive, see that it is a wonderful and perfect hive, and begin laying eggs and making baby bees.

I eagerly opened the hive and set the queen in her carriage on the frames and the bees celebrated. You can almost hear their jubilation.

I made some room in the top hive box and set it on top, and closed the hive. I will check again in 2 weeks. If all goes well, I should find eggs again, finally, and I too will celebrate!

Welcome little queen! I hope you are happy here, live a long long life, make lots and lots of baby bees, and I do not accidentally squish you!

Oh hey... this one needs a name. I'm taking suggestions because all I came up with was "Dot" or "Queenie McQueenface" and I need help. 🐝