Hello girls, I'm home!

I've spent the last 8 days on a Disney Cruise ship. I'm tired, a bit more tanned, a bit more fluffy (ugh that cruise food), and have a mountain of laundry to do. But the first thing I wanted to do today was check on the girls.

Last time, I told you the good news that they had made queen cells. I couldn't wait to see what had happened. I've been wondering all week. So...the question of the hour... DO WE HAVE A QUEEN!?

I have no freaking idea. And the queen cells are completely gone. That's no surprise because if they raised a queen successfully and she emerged, the workers would immediately remove the queen cell. They're very meticulous like that. So if they did in fact raise a queen, she could very well be in the hive being all new and fresh and shiny. But she'll need to mate and get back to the hive and get busy laying eggs before I'll know anything. It takes about 20 days from queen cell to a queen laying eggs. I saw the queen cells on September 5th, so it may be another week or two before there are eggs again.

IF, a big gigantic IF, everything happens like it's supposed to. I will say that the girls kinda sorta maybe seemed less agitated, which could be a good sign that they do actually have a queen again. But I am so completely unsure about everything at this point, I am not making any assumptions. I don't know. Until I actually see eggs with my very own eyes, I'm Jon Snow.

Well I don't actually know nothing. What I do know is that there is zero brood left. They have all developed and emerged. And I know worker bees die naturally every day and my colony is currently shrinking. And I know it will continue to shrink every day until a queen is laying new eggs and those eggs grow into adult bees.

I have a limited amount of time to do anything before my colony shrinks and disappears forever. We're in countdown. Six weeks. Tick tock. I'm kinda in panic mode. I have emailed the all-knowing beehive inspector for advice, asking "should I wait and see", or "should I go ahead and buy a queen?" So I'm currently trying not to freak out and patiently wait to hear back from my bee guru. But really. TICK M**F**'n TOCK.

In the meantime, here's what is going on in the hive. Lots of honey. The 10 frames in the bottom box are all pretty full with honey and pollen. Of course they are because there are no babies to feed all that honey to. Sad face.

I guess if anything, at least I'll have honey right? No! Because I've been feeding them sugar syrup to help build up the colony. Most of the honey in my honey laden hive is just sugar syrup and not real honey. Ha ha haa ha haaaa. Crap.

The girls are working on building out the top frames too. It seems a little slow going, but they're making progress, and I don't really know how long it takes to build out frames because I've never done this before. But it's neat watching them make progress and new honeycomb wax is so pretty and white.

My frames have plastic foundations that are pre-molded in a honeycomb pattern. It helps the bees start building in a nice uniform pattern. They would do fine on their own, but the plastic also gives the comb more stability so I'm less likely to damage or break the comb when moving frames. Because that is totally something I would do.

The population seems to be ok for now. But I know it's getting smaller every day. UGH I don't want to think about losing my bees. I mean, if it does happen, I can just buy more and start all over, but these are my girls and I love them and I want them to be ok. Just look at how cute they are.

I love these bugs so much.

No reply from the bee guru yet. TICK TOCK. I guess I'll go tackle my mountain of laundry and try not to freak out.

🐝

9/16/19 9:45am UPDATE: I heard back from the bee guru. He said there is probably a virgin queen in there and not to open the hive again for 2 weeks. If all went well, I should find eggs and larvae. And he told me something I didn't know... that bees replace the queen every 6-9 months in Florida, and they are usually successful. I was told my queen was only 3 months old so I'm still not sure what happened to her, but YAY MAYBE I DIDN'T SQUISH HER!! Next time this happens and I freak out thinking that I squished her, remind me that maybe they just, you know, kinda assassinated her themselves like it's no big deal. It's ok. This happens. BUT WHY DO THEY DO THIS!? 🐝