Happy spring queen

Today was glorious sunshine - blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Perfect weather for shook swarming our bees. A change of plans meant that Emily and me decided to Bailey comb change our hives instead, because they looked so happy and healthy after winter and destroying all the brood seemed too extreme.

So we trapped the queens and arranged the bees new homes above their old ones, so that they can climb up gradually and start working on fresh foundation. It felt good not to destroy all the baby bees and as our ladies were in a good mood, I think they appreciated it too!

Here is Queen Rosemary, from our larger hive, trapped inside Emily's queen cage. We marked her white again as she had rubbed off her dot over winter. This way she is easier to spot during inspections and we won't accidentally squish her.

It's bad to squish queens - you only have one and she is very important, and also it's not nice.