she’s here!

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I received a phone call this morning from a lady at Canada Post – they had a buzzing package for me. The queen bee and her attendants have arrived already! I was very thankful she decided to call me to pick it up, rather than sent it out with a letter carrier. It’s been so hot, and she was worried that the bees might overheat, as was I. Not worried anymore, I’ve got my queen!

Let’s take a look:

Bees plus receipt.

And here’s the queen cage – it’s hard to see the bees inside due to the lighting, but there are a bunch of them there to take care of the queen. She has attendants for everything – grooming, feeding, carrying away her feces… she’s just an egg-laying machine, can’t stop for anything!

The little block of wood on the end is covering up the candy, just in case it gets eaten through. The candy is there to provide a nice slow introduction of the queen – otherwise the hive will reject her and sting her to death. Having a common goal – eating through the candy – allows them to be in close proximity and get used to each other. The hive adopts the queen’s scent and takes her as their own queen as the hive and the queen’s attendants eat through both ends of the candy.

Now, I need to make some introductions.

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