If you've been following our adventures lately, you know that last Saturday I discovered that the queen in hive #1 has been murdered. (You may also have noticed that I've hijacked Emily's blog. I'm sorry to her readers. She hasn't been writing much lately, but I promise that she'll be back sooner or later.)
Losing the queen has been a serious and devastating loss to the colony, and to me personally it has been much more difficult than losing Jack the cat or Belle the bichon-- but not as sad as losing Roseynosey/Pumpkinposey/Fluffy/Twinklesflower/Kitty.
I read up on the situation with my queen and I found out that it's not a rare problem. The guy who sold us the hives said that about one in five hives will either reject and kill its queen, watch helplessly as she flies off, or-- sometimes-- she just dies on her own (I'll also mention here that there is always the possibility that the beekeeper can inadvertently crush her while doing an inspection, but I'm pretty sure I didn't so I won't mention it again outside of this parenthetical thought.)
I don't really like to think of my queen abandoning her hive, it wasn't my fault, and I can't imagine that such a beautiful young queen could die on her own. Instead, I imagine that the colony rose up and inexplicably and irrationally killed her.
The method of bee regicide is interesting. I always thought that they would just sting her... but they don't. They use a method called "balling"-- in which the bees crowd the queen, piling on until a huge mound of bees forms with her in the center. The combined body heat of the collective suffocates and overheats the queen (along with a few others in the center of the dog-pile) and she dies.
After my discovery on Saturday, I had to do something... fast. Bees only live a few weeks and without a queen the workers would slowly just die off. I'd be left with an empty box and nothing to show for it. My dad and I began doing some research. According to the professionals, websites, and books we consulted we had a few thousand options. Since most of the options weren't suitable for a beginner operation like I've got, we narrowed them to two:
1) Get a new queen. After overnight shipping it would be over $60 for her. With the colony acting the way it is, it could very well ball the new queen, and I'm back where I started--except $60 poorer.
2) Combine my two hives into one bigger hive. This is the option that seemed to make the most sense. Dad and I read up on it, and we thought this was the best of our choices.
We loaded the suits and tools into the Radio Flyer and went to Woody's yard to work with the bees:
We came upon the hives and I noticed something I thought interesting-- hive#1, has been consuming about twice as much sugar-water as the healthy hive. If you enlarge this picture you'll see that the Mason jar on the left is empty, while the other is half full. It was that way on Saturday too, when I replaced them both. I wonder if they drink more when there's no queen. (Guilty conscience, perhaps?)
Before: (Two hives.)
After: (One bigger hive.)
The method for combining the hives is pretty simple. You take one weak hive, and stick it on top of the other (healthy) one. Sandwiched between the two boxes is a single page of the Deseret News. (The Salt Lake Tribune would also work, but I don't think my bees like the St. George Spectrum because of the ghastly editing.)The sheet of paper keeps the hives separated for a while so that they don't just charge in and begin warring. There are a few holes poked in the paper to allow the scent from one hive to mingle with the other. After about a week, the two hives will be one and they will have completely chewed away and eaten the paper that separated them. They will then begin to function as one happy hive with one queen.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that there will be no more killings this summer.
Mandatory close-up shot. This time it is of the entryway with a bee standing guard.
Gwen, studying the bees up close. If she was feeling anything like me, she was mourning the loss of hive #1 as well.
Mandatory close-up shot. This time it is of the entryway with a bee standing guard.
11 comments:
Great commentary, I love to read your bee keeping log and I'm here living it! Your assistants are quite dignified but lovely! You need to teach them the Vanna arm wave for the pictures.
I do believe that the Spectrum is only rivaled by the Hi Desert Newspaper in Yucca! Great pictures! Mom
I can't believe the bee saga! It is almost as good as the final season of "24" (2 hours left - tune in next Monday for the 2 hour series finally). Seems just as bloody and violent as a government/terrorist confrontation. (Sans Jack Bauer)
I am LOVING it!
I'm also following your bee saga with much interest! I'm glad you're doing the trail-blazing so when we finally get bees and disaster strikes, we can just call you and find out what to do.
Keep us posted on your combined hive!
Please accept my sincere sympathy on the loss of your Queen. May she rest in peace after such an awful death!
Good luck with the new mega-hive. I hope all the subjects will honor and work hard for the new queen.
And, thanks for the wonderful tales of raising bees!
Mom, The High Desert Star is rivaled only by the Promontory News section of the Box Elder News Journal... check it out sometime.
Maryann, I was thinking the same thing. Thanks for the comparison to 24. It's similar, but with fewer terrorist interrogations and torture. I guess President Palmer was assassinated too and... and... that's about the only comparison I can make. I haven't seen past season 1, and I heard that this is the final year/day... Is Jack Bauer going to bite the bullet?
Melissa, Don't base your decision to get bees on any success or failure we have out here. I bet WV would be a perfect place to keep bees. Good luck!
I am also riveted by your bee keeping saga. Are you worried the terrorists in hive number 1 will kill queen number 2? Apparently they are a more blood thirsty hive and thrive on anarchy!
Great assistant, I see you have her hauling the heavy equipment.
She wanted to pull the wagon.
Hummm...death by suffocation? And how do they decide which bees take one for the team? Very interesting! Hope the other Queen survives the take-over!
We love reading about the Lowes and the bees!
Now you have a big hive to start the summer with. My bees are making honey and babies. I started them in 2 boxes and the queen was working on the top box so I switched the boxes. I plan on getting another hive soon. what I dont get is why you put that suit on? My bees like me.
Dave Snow
Post a Comment