Queen bee

Fingers crossed, the new queen bee will be welcomed successfully :D That was such a surreal event. We triple-checked that indeed the A hive is queen-less, although there were queen cells present, they were all destroyed and no new brood for a week now. Plenty of drones, prancing around like Louis XIV, all posh and buff. Such hunks. Alas, we needed to purchase a new one, as none of the homestead hives have them yet, and this old little man at the edge of town sells them - we drove (can't cross city limits anyway), got this tiny box sealed with sugary wax, marked queen inside with four or five of her court, and I talked to her all the way back, like I'm retarded or ... just being me :D Eventually g just put it in his pocket and set to work: he removed a panel to make room and then laid the box on the busy panel.

Holy ...

The bees covered it immediately. It was freaky. We stared closely at their attitude, in case they decided to reject her out of hand, trying to kill through the little vent bars. Then we placed the box deeper in, between honey-packed plates, and watched. Again, the queen was completely covered, the box invisible under the accumulation. The box is only partially opened, so that they have to gnaw through the sugar seal, taking a few days to familiarise themselves with the new lady. With a little luck, this will be a smooth transition and already in no time (she is already fertilised) signs of egg-laying will prove she's settled in and the hive is safe. It's a huge, massively powerful and productive hive. Hard to tell if it will remain as such with this new queen, it's good to know where your queens come from, but then again you never really can for sure. Same as we have no idea what suddenly happened with the old one.