24 May, 11 am - 2011

It was 86º at the Back Yard Bees, partly cloudy and no wind.

Zeta Hive
Opened up the hive to check on the release of the queen. There were bees all around the queen cage and the two frames that the cage was in between. The queen was not released. I removed the cage and removed the cork from the other end of the queen cage and put the cage at the entrance of the hive. After about 15 seconds the queen was somewhere in the hive. Hopefully she will be okay and begin egg laying. I'll check on this hive again in 7 days.

Bee Yard in the country

Alpha Hive
It was time to check the hive for the release of the queen. This hive also did not release the queen. But there were bees all around the two frames where the queen cage was centered. I released the queen the same way I did for the Zeta Hive. I will also check again in 7 days.


After looking at the two queen cages, the queen candy still had wax paper on the screen side of the cage. That is probably why the bees had difficulty releasing the queen.