New bees on the block

A new queen and were installed our hive at Hazel Heights on April 15... here's a peek at the process! The lovely pictures were taken by Mileaux Welty.

Our volunteer Beekeeper, Paul Bryant, is all suited up! He's taken the top cover off of our bee hive. He shared a lot of information on bee culture during the installation. We're getting Italian bees and a new queen. The majority of the hive has travels coach, but the queen gets special treatment in a private box of her own. The white plug is a marshmallow that her workers will eat to let her out. In the few days it takes to work through the plug, the queen will acclimate to her new home and be likely to stay.

New Italian worker bees

Our new queen bee

Paul takes a frame out of the hive (with some work-in-progress from the previous tenants)

And then transfers the bees to their new home. He does this by simply shaking the box, and the bees fall out like cereal! (Not quite the honey-crunch I want to eat, however.)

Ready...here we go!

Gentle shakes get the bees out of their box.

When all the bees are out, Paul places the queen in the hive, still in her travelling box.

Finally, the frame is carefully replaced... and the hive closed back up.

 We hope these bees will find our garden a sweet new home!