The Chosen One

The picture is a classic, mature, fully capped queen cell - the same colony who gave notice of their intentions back in April. Having accepted their commitment, last weekend we moved the queen to a small box with a modest band of workers, explained to her that yes, she had swarmed and that now she needed to get on and build up her small realm to something bigger. They are now doing just that, well on the road to greater things

The mass of bees left behind panic slightly when they realise that it really has happened: the queen has gone. They become jumpy and excitable, if not a little fearful - for all the world like a child who suddenly realises mummy is not there. Like many people under stress, they also over-react: in addition to the queen cells they had already created, they take eggs that the queen had layed in worker cells and feed them as queens - they elongate and bend the cells downward into so-called 'emergency' queen cells (extra)

I popped in on Wednesday, took a good look at all the cells they had created (at that stage still unsealed) and picked out a few I thought looked robust and well fed. This was one of them. Today, we returned and cut the selection down to one - I like the way they have invested time and effort into reinforcing this one a lot, and anchoring it to the bottom bar. It suggests they are proud of it. All the remaining cells we cut or pull off the comb and discard

This judgement of Solomon is necessary because, if there are multiple queen cells in the hive, there is a risk that the first queen to emerge will abscond with many of the workers - a sort of secondary swarm, called a 'cast' - undermining all the good work we have done to hold on to them. I dislike this feeling of putting all our eggs in one basket, but I have in the past suffered the consequences if not doing so - the wisdom of experience. So now we wait - for this queen to emerge, mate and take up her role. The less we interfere, the better her chances

An update from the medical ward: the other colony remains unwell but shows hopeful signs of not being overwhelmed. Again, we wait