New Bees

On Saturday we dropped off a box to a beekeeper in Johnsonville who put some frames of bees in it, including a laying queen (still to be named). Next morning we collected it and put it in our bee coop. Sunday was wet and they stayed in, complaining about the weather over here in Newtown, but now it's sunny and here they come creeping out of their hive, flying around in front of it to take a good look at it and then pottering off to check the new neighbourhood out. 

P.S. 

The other hive's new queen's name is Becky. She's named after Genghis Khan's peace-making and successful daughter https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/alakhai-beki while also thinking of Becky who is one of the calmest and clearest communicating players that I've coached. 

Good health, and a new Queen to name.

These bees are from brood that has been officially inspected and declared to be fair, not foul. Hooray! We don't need the worst kind of Guy Fawkes bonfire today. 

It seems golden Rachael and her old guard have probably swarmed (it's rare that could have happened without us knowing about it, so maybe they went to the Folk Festival too) and also she has been superceded by a beautiful brown daughter (or possibly granddaughter) whose laying pattern is just fine. 

We put in ApiLife Var wafers to protect Rachael's daughter's brood and took off a whole box of dear hard-working Rachael's spring honey. 

Here is the bee coop today, with plastic tubs of honey frames we hope to extract and a wee hive where Malka's was which we hope to have a nuc move into.  

Summer has begun.