Today's the day! I'm gonna find a queen!

Forgive me readers, it has been two weeks since my last inspection. Yep, it's time for bee confessional.

I eagerly and oh so optimistically suited up to check the hive today. Bee Guru said "check in two weeks, you should find eggs and larvae", and it's been exactly two weeks so I'M CHECKING TODAY! Surely I have a queen and she's done the queen bee things and is making baby bees by now, right? RIGHT?

My hive was exceptionally active today. It is lovely weather, clear skies, sunny and 88 degrees. The girls approve of this weather. Check this out...

I've never seen them so active at the entrance. I watched them for a bit going in and out of the hive, me fully suited up, and Pierre in no bee protection what so ever. They didn't care that we were even there, just buzzing in and out and about their business. I was very optimistic when opening 'er up. They're so happy and calm. Things look pretty good!

I took the top box off and looked in the lower box. Lots of bees. Good good! So I begin to carefully inspect each frame, looking for the gold. No, not the golden honey... the eggs of course. The proof of queen life. The evidence that my hive is doing great and everything is as it should be.

I carefully checked every frame.

I found honey, and pollen.

I found lots of bees.

I found happy bees.

I found busy bees.

But. I DID NOT FIND EGGS. Not a one. No! No! Nooooooooooooo! NO EGGS!!!

I checked the top box. The one they're still building comb in. The one I knew was not built out enough for a queen to be laying in. I checked it anyway.

And found just what I expected. A bunch of nothin'.

I just kinda stood there in disbelief. Still queenless. All my hopes and dreams... squished.

Hmmmph. Fair enough.

It's ok. I am disappointed. Really disappointed. But not like totally devastated. There are still lots of bees, so I have time. I just need to purchase a queen and get her in there. Even IF I have a virgin queen in there (probably not), who has not yet mated (probably not), I need to know I have a queen in there that I know is mated. I need to buy one. Finding a queen locally would be ideal, I'll go pick her up, bring her back and that's that. If I can't find one local, I'll order a queen. Or two. I've sent out some inquiries and if/when I get a queen, I'll of course come and tell you all about it. With pictures of a queen because she'll be trapped in a little box so I should have no problem finding her. Haha.

Also, I'm considering ordering two queens and splitting my hive. Yes, into two separate hives. I have to get Bee Guru advice on that first. I don't know if my population can handle a split, or if it's even a good time of year to do it. But I really think I want two hives now. I mentioned this before, but I'll explain again for those in the back.

If I had two hives, and one hive is queenless, I could take a frame of eggs and brood from the queenright hive and put it in the queenless hive. Then they could raise their own queen from the eggs. Having two hives makes it easier to fix problems, or even see problems in the first place by comparing the two. Plus double the fun. Double the honey. I should have two hives. I should have had two from the start.

Shoulda, coulda. But back to the current situation, we are queenless. Despite this, the girls are not the least bit aggressive. They were busy flying all over the place and almost no one felt the need to get all up in my face. They're super calm.

Well, almost no one. This girl did get in my face, but I'm pretty sure she was just saying "'Ello there! Lovely weather we're having!" She was the only one that got even a little bit aggressive.

One little girl on my veil. Do you see her?

I mean, that kinda makes me want to think that there is a virgin in there and I just checked too early. But also probably not, and again here I am with a big question mark on my face wondering all the things and feeling like I know nothing but reminding myself that I started all of this with the intention of learning. So ok fine, I'm learning. Something. I don't know what, but something.

Anyway, it is a lovely day and also here are some bee bridges because bee bridges are super cute and make me smile even when I'm a big beekeeping failure and have no queen.

🐝