Monday, October 12, 2015

Wondering What's Up in the Bee Yard!

October 12 --

We inspected the hives today. We weren't really planning to inspect Queen Anya's hive because we figured she was gone and the hive was finished. But what really surprised us was that Queen Rachel appears to be gone as well and there was hardly any brood in that hive. We opened Queen Bianca's hive but there was still a full bag of syrup so we decided to inspect that hive later. 

Since there were still bees going in and out of Queen Anya's hive we opened it and went through it. What the.......!!! Lots of bees and lots of shiny, uncapped honey in the top box. When we went down to the middle box we found both capped and uncapped brood. There certainly isn't enough brood to get through the winter but the queen still has time to lay so we are hopeful. 

But where the queen came from is beyond us. There was no evidence three weeks ago of a queen. There was no brood at all. The only thing we can think of is that there was a virgin queen we didn't see, but all the brood laid by the old queen had hatched. It's all very puzzling. We wonder whether we will have any bees next Spring at this rate. 

What a mystery!

Why did Queen Rachel quit? 

And what is going on with Queen Bianca? 

And where did the new Queen Anya come from? 

Are the bees playing musical hives? 

Curiouser and curiouser.   

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Biking, Hiking and Enjoying our Vacation to Niagara Falls

We only went for twelve days, but packed lots of adventures in during that time. We stayed at the KOA on the Canadian side from Monday - Friday. What a place: nice, level campsites, two swimming pools outside and one inside with two hot tubs. It was more like a resort. There were cabins for the non-campers and plenty for the children with a jumping pillow, mini golf ($), and a nice playground. We didn't stay at the campground much but enjoyed the indoor pool and hot tub in the evening. The falls were beautiful although riding the boat (The Hornblower on the Canadian side.) was an exercise in being blinded and soaked by the mist. Great fun anyway.