Sunday, October 23, 2011

Bee Babies

Today it was time to open the two hives in my backyard and see if they have laying queens. When we last looked, there was no sign of brood in either hive. That could have been because their new queens were still not mature, or because they didn't have queens.

Here's what's happening in the hive with the swarm caught on 25th September:
Definite eggs and larvae there! They've also completely filled the available space and have started building comb in the lid, so later tonight they are going to get an added super.

The original hive has more developed larvae and capped brood, which are pupating to become adults. 
So it looks like they also have a successful new queen, who has been laying for at least a week longer than the swarm queen.

Any suggestions for names for these hives? Now that there are four hives, I need a better way of referring to them. It was easy when there was just one, but now there's the first hive, my hive, my swarm hive, and the giant swarm hive.

4 comments:

CurlyPops said...

Hmmm how about naming them after your favourite quilt designers? They look like hexagon pieced quilts!

Chiara Z said...

tricky--I name pet mammals by appearance and character, but those criteria don't really work here . . .

Terry said...

if you don't go with the quilt designers How about hexagon patterns. Flower garden ect. Lots of honey coming your way.

kaiteM said...

or just keep it simple with something like FH, MH, MSH and MGSH.....i even had trouble typing that!