A New Queen in Town

Several weeks ago, life in the Blue hive changed suddenly. While the hive was busy as usual, the eggs and larvae disappeared. 

That only happens when the queen dies or leaves with a swarm. 

In this case, it looked like the queen had died. She was always hard to locate and may have been killed during an inspection -- something that happens sometimes.

The bees quickly set about make several new queens using recently laid eggs. Queens take 16 days to mature and about a week to mate and begin making new bees.

During the most recent inspection on May 9 I found proof that there's a new queen in town. 

Blue hive survived a bear attack last year and went on to produce almost 30 pounds of honey. They are double-tough.