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.
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