06/18/2021
We did an inspection today. This is one of our over wintered Queens. We call her Queen Ferguson. She has been a machine this season. Some history about her. Her mother was from a nuc we got last year, she didn't make it due to rookie mistakes. So we took the swam cells (3) and got them to hatch. 3 hatched and only one made it back from the mating flight, Queen Ferguson. She hasn't skipped a beat since the start of the season. Each side of the frame could have about 4,500 cells. Each cell can hold honey, pollen, or a new bee. All of the capped cells in the pictures are what is called brood. Brood is the new bees. So if we say the frame is 75% capped brood on booth sides that would hive us 6,750 new bees. Just off of one frame. A stong colony can have in the rage of 20-40 thousand bees during the peek season. She can lay up to 1500 eggs a day. And queen Ferguson has 20 of these frame to lay her little heart out. 20 frames is more than enough for her, having too much is better than not enough. With the black berry bloom kicking off, its important she has plenty of room. Otherwise the hive may choose to swam. That will be information for another post. I hope you have learned something about these amazing insects.
