Just When I Thought About Giving Up...

My bees will never cease to amaze me. I have been worried about the girls in the Flower Hive (guess I gave up on naming the queen and have named the hive instead) because one week after hiving the new Italians there was no queen activity to be seen. And two weeks after installing them there was still no queen activity. I thought for sure something had gone wrong with her, even though I knew she was alive and well when I put her in and that I hadn't smashed her. I had spent long minutes hunting through frames in that hive two and three times over without seeing her. I've gotten better at spotting queens too, but to no avail here. 


Well.


Friday I was ready to order a new queen from Harvest Lane. If I waited much longer I knew I would lose the hive because all of the bees would die out due to no replacements being born. I even typed the email up to request a new queen, but hesitated actually hitting "send." I deleted it, deciding to check things (illogically, really) one more time yesterday afternoon. 


Perhaps Flower Girl was just waiting for the hive to suit her. Maybe she wanted to be sure there was plenty of pollen and nectar on hand before she got to work. Whatever it was, I opened that hive yesterday to discover two frames filled and one side of another with some lovely capped brood and larvae. I was so delighted I nearly squealed, but didn't because I didn't want to upset my bees. 


Not only that, the new Carniolan queen I installed in the Old Vic hive (formerly Victoria's hive, and now named after a famous London West End theatre) has been performing marvelously as well. Bronwyn and I both got to see her. That's always a neat experience. And I added a second honey super to that hive. It's pretty impressive to see it standing four boxes tall now. I'll have to post pictures soon. I just didn't have my camera out there.


Ahhhh. Maybe patience really is a virtue after all. A little prayer helps too.