Mystery of the Vanishing Queen Cup
I raced home at lunchtime today to do a hive inspection. It’s been very cold, windy, and foggy, so I wasn’t able to check on that troubling queen cup I saw on June 12. Since today was a bit warmer, I decided to take a quick peek. I was a bit rushed, so I didn’t get a chance to look closely for Latifah, but there was a lot of capped brood and larvae. And, intriguingly, the queen cup had vanished… So, that stuff about queen cups sometimes being part of the normal “furniture” of a hive seems to have applied here. Maybe the bees chewed it up to make tiny ottomans.
Amazingly, the super I’d added 12 days ago not only had all of its frames drawn out, but was also already full of honey! (Click for a larger, undistorted view)
6 of the 8 frames were fully stocked and partially capped. I added another honey super below the top one. We’re now up to five stories of bees.
The bees in the two upper supers were docile and charming; those in the brood boxes seemed unusually peevish today. Did my stomach growl when I saw the honey? I think they’re on to me.
Replaced the empty bottle of diluted sugar water with plain water
wow, lucky you and your disappearing queen cup. i can’t believe how big your hive is! do you anticipate harvesting honey this year?
i am still so slow at hive inspections, it would take me an hour to get through five boxes. unfortunately, the nectar and pollen flow are horrible right now, so there’s a pretty good chance i will never get to five boxes!
Yes, surprisingly, we will be extracting honey this year! I need to get faster at doing the hive inspections, too. And a new problem–one I shouldn’t complain about–is that the supers are so heavy/high, I can’t lift them myself. Can’t imagine anything bigger than the 8-frame supers we’re using…