Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth and her retinue
We’ve just had a coronation.
Queen Elizabeth now reigns in our apiary. I saw her today on the central brood frame in her hive, laying eggs in an expanse of polished empty cells. As you can see in the photo above, she was surrounded by an attentive enclave of ladies in waiting…or perhaps “queen’s companions”.
She is a new young queen and has just started laying. The bees eagerly monitor her laying. You can actually see an egg emerging here:
While the combs in the middle of the brood box were mostly polished empty cells, ready to receive eggs, the combs around those were plentifully stocked with stores and were heavy to lift. Maybe hard to see in the photograph below as it’s covered in bees!
Frame of bee bread and nectar
The bees were calm, the hive smelt wonderful, and all was in order.
Exactly as I had hoped.
This is a happy outcome after a complicated backstory involving suspected murder of this queen’s mother, Queen Columbine. I’ll write that little mystery novel another time.
