I’m so excited to be getting baby bees again, I feel like I won the lottery!
It has been way too long in my apiary since I have seen the smiling shape of pearly white baby bee larvae. The past four weeks have been adventurous. I watched my original queen get superseded by her daughter – out with the old and in with the new. I watched my bees fly away in a swirling mass of swarm and very luckily managed to capture that swarm, stumbling my way through the entire process. I watched a new queen being raised, hatched and grow from a small virgin to a large plump mated queen – a seemingly unending progression for an impatient beekeeper. It has all been an excellent learning experience.
Day in and day out, I have spent so much time thinking and worrying about my bees I feel like they are my own children. A fellow beekeeper friend said it best “They may have a Queen, but I am their Mama!” (Hat Tip Colleen.) I never expected to become this endeared with a tiny little insect, one that is so essential to the survival of the human species as a whole. It has been too long since I have been without eggs and without the cute little faces and little eyes of brand new baby bees. Today is a day for celebration, pop the champagne and pass out cigars, the babies are on their way!