Problem: Our hive lost its queen! She abandoned the hive, making for distraught bees buzzing loudly to communicate their discontent for a hive lacking in order and purpose. Without a queen laying eggs for the nurse bees to care for, their chain of order is all thrown off.
The total development time for bees is as follows:
-16 days for a queen
-21 days for a worker
-24 days for a drone
So, hopefully it won't be too long before order is restored and a queen is made.
Solution: We put newspaper on top of the top hive box and placed another hive box on top and added some bees from another hive who will make a new queen. The hope is that they will then chew through the paper and join our current hive with the new one.
*When we originally moved them, we had some deformed bees resulting from disruption during development. It goes to show how important it is to have careful gestational attention in even the smallest of creatures. Those bees are gone now since their life span is only up to 6 weeks long, and they are growing and strong still despite having lost their leader.
We now have 4 hive boxes.
Harvesting Honey tips:
Nectar mixed with honey will ferment the entire batch. Harvest must be capped honey only, which assures us that no extra moisture gets in for bacteria growth, so it is crucial to not be impatient as we wait for a full box that is ready to harvest.
Otherwise, honey never goes bad. If it crystallizes, you can use it as is in coffee or tea, or if you prefer you can place it in a pot of water to warm it and melt the crystals.
