Sunday, January 14, 2007
Regicide
We have made one resolution for this year - the queen must die. Against the advice of the old pros in the LBKA, we didn't kill HRH last year. She had come to us the year before as a virgin (we named her Bess) and the thought of squashing her didn't appeal. One year on things feel different. We seem to have very swarmy bees and our original monarch decamped with half the colony while we weren't looking. We had been dutifully destroying queen cells as we found them, but one must have escaped notice, and then another. I think the new queens are poor layers - perhaps they weren't fed royal jelly from the start? Anyway we are going to order 2 new sovereigns in the spring, all spunked up and ready to lay eggs. The real difficulty is going to be in finding the old ones. We searched several times unsuccessfully over the summer - another reason I think they are runts - so they are still unmarked. Meanwhile I've got a pamphlet on mead making and I'm going to have a go with some of this year's taking.
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6 comments:
I think you should get a pulley set-up like the person on the left.
Been steered here by Bifurcated Carrots and your comment on my post. Very interesting - bees in London - any chance of buying some local honey??!!!
Hi John. We can't actually sell it without getting into all sorts of rules and regulations which I believe involve heating it to a temperature which destroys some of it's healing, nourishing properties. We do give away lots to friends and relations. Come next June/July, let me know your whereabouts and I can send you a sample.
Thanks very much!
Is it my imagination, or have you been playing the Ukrainian Bee Counting game as explained at Hooting Yard?
I guess I have to fess up to loitering around Hooting Yard and playing said game. Hmm... might I go blind?
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