Metropolis was cranky, and the other 2 Alphington hives (Baghdad, Other) also had older queens, so it was time to re-queen, I decided to do the whole lot in one hit.
I received 3 Italian queens in the mail, (queens come from Queensland) express post, landed on my desk at work Thursday morning, so I shared their company for the rest of the day in the office, then rode my bike home with them.
Those couple of days were really hot, and I had to keep them until Saturday when I was re-queening, but they survived OK on the kitchen table In one of the parcels a few of the escorts died, but the rest seemed OK, I gave them a drink every now and then, they seemed to relax after a while.
Thermometer below is outside the house, it was only 10 degrees cooler in the house.
First, over to Baghdad.
Here's Edis checking out the new queen on Saturday, you can tell he's pretty happy, and the bees have started to eat their way out of their 'cage' over the last couple of days.
My Old friend Dave Wyatt gave me a hand that day, he's an ex-beekeeper from Freo, he was in town for a while do I roped him in. The shot below is just before an armada (flotilla? phalanx?) of bees decided to carpet-bomb his skin-tight jeans, he put my dad's size 93 trackies over the top, then was OK after that...
Dave took these pictures, as well as joining me in the queen-hunt.
Brood box
Looking, Looking...
You get a bit dizzy staring at bees, its a bit of a needle in a haystack thing, she's not THAT different from the rest, at least until you spot her... Strangely Hypnotic. we were in a hurry at first, but then relaxed and got more systematic.
There she is....
(squish)
Having decapitated the head of state, we then installed our own compliant puppet government queen, we're told she will be hard working, tidy, friendly and fertile..
And then a rapid getaway.
We went straight to the wetlands hives after this, just around the corner, so we didn't bother de-suiting. Also, there were a few persistent bees that were circling, looking for any exposed flesh.
We then re-queened the other hives, no photos, due to a large glob of wax in the middle of the lens.
( Dave, send me those phone pics you took...! )
Sting Tally:This season: 33 so far (Jonas 13, Edis 6, Rima 3, Jazmina 6, Dave 5)
2011/2012 season: 48 (Jonas 30 Adrian 1 Edis 6 Jazmina 10 Rima 1)
2010 / 2011 season: Heaps
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Honey Tally:This season: 50 litres so far.
2011/2012 season: 49 Litres
2010 / 2011 season: 34 Litres
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That's about 1 sting per Litre.
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