New Queen Bee

I bumped into beekeeper Rod on Wednesday who had an update on our newly installed bee hives at Compton Verney, particularly the latest colony to be added into the second hive. In short, the new queen hasn’t fared particularly well, having become weaker over the last few days, and a new queen bee has become necessary to boost an otherwise failing colony.

In light of this, Rod had a good chat with our friends over at ‘Honey Bee Suppliers’, who immediately responded by offering to send out a new queen bee, who is pictured below having just arrived in her postal transport case! It’s hard to believe that bees travel by post, but as one tweeter mentioned it is Royal Mail after all!

A new queen bee arrives for a Compton Verney hive – via post!

It’s hard to see in this image, but she has a little dot of red paint on her back, none harming I hasten to add, so that she may be easily identified and checked when finally introduced into the hive. Let us hope that she settles in quickly and heads up the colony in style!

Hive one I have to say is doing extremely well, and we’re looking forward to harvesting some honey shortly. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that the first crop is very much looked forward to, and I shall bring news and photos of this as soon as possible to show the process.

If you have chance to tour the grounds when next visiting Compton Verney, you’ll be able to see the hives (from a safe distance) in the far corner of the ‘wild-flower’ west lawn, behind the mansion – do pop over to see the bees hard at work!

Regards

Gary