New Bees in the Apiary

Today I travelled out to Tooele to Harvest Lane Honey with my beekeeping sister-in-law Lauri. I picked up a new 3-pound package of Carniolan bees, as well as a new queen to replace Victoria. The Italian bees I had overwintered successfully had started superseding her anyway, and when I interfered with that I figured out they already knew what they were doing. Victoria had completely quit laying any eggs and for the last three and a half weeks there haven't been any new bees added to the hive. Sigh. That's going to set things back a bit. But today I introduced a new Carniolan (everyone around here says "Car-noh-leeh-un" and I thought it was "Car-nee-oh-lun;" I think I'm going to have to look that up) queen. Here she is in her own special queen cage with several attendant bees taking care of her. She is right in the middle, with the very long abdomen.

I managed to find Victoria in her hive, on frame six where Bronwyn and I had found her last Tuesday, and I pinched her with my gloved fingers and popped her in a jelly jar. Bronwyn wanted to save her for awhile. There was a worker bee who came along. It makes me think of those Egyptian slaves who got sacrificed along with their pharaoh so he would have company on his journey to the underworld.

Here is the new package of bees. Bronwyn and I painted a few flowers on this brood box to help them recognize their hive. Okay, really, it was just because we thought it would be fun, but if it helps them identify their house more easily, I'll go for that excuse too. I'm trying a different cover on this hive, as well as an inner cover. Gotta get some sugar syrup out to the girls so they have something to eat. That syrup can was pretty empty.

And here is my apiary. I haven't decided what to name the new queens yet. "Elizabeth" seems a bit dangerous since my first Elizabeth didn't do her job at all. Bronwyn thinks I should name one "Kate." Any ideas?