Finally removing the queen cage in Squill
The last time Brian checked his new hive the queen had not been released yet. The bees were clustered all over the cage and some appeared to be biting the wires. A week later, Brian was wondering if the queen was even still alive. Upon opening the hive, clusters of bees were on the top bars and some were on the queen cage (although far less than before). This is what the hive looked like inside.
Brian brushed the bees off the queen cage with a feather.
Peering inside the cage there was no queen to be found. Hooray! At last, the queen had been released by the bees! Colony crisis averted. Relieved and not wanting to push his luck, Brian removed the queen cage and rim board and closed the hive back up.
I was dying to get a look inside and check the queen but Brian wanted to wait and give them more time to get settled. Since he is the boss of this hive I guess I’ll have to be patient a little while longer. I’m glad to see his queen was out and the bees were bringing in orange pollen (probably dandelion). This is a great sign the workers have accepted the new queen and brood is in there or on the way shortly.
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