The Queen!

Anson and I got the opportunity to check the bees today as it is beautiful and warm.  You can only work the bees in the winter on warm days, and those often fall on days where I have work or other activities so I was pleased to be able to finally get out there.  And we had great news!  We spotted our queen!  She's not laying but that may be because I have not provided her adequate space to lay as all the frames are full of honey.  I'll add some space for her soon but for now I'm just happy to still have a hive and a queen!

She has a yellow marking to allow the beekeeper to more easily find her, even though her longer body makes her distinguishable anyway.  The breeder uses different colored dots based on the year:

• White - years ending in 1 or 6
• Yellow - years ending in 2 or 7
• Red - years ending in 3 or 8
• Green - years ending in 4 or 9
• Blue - years ending in 5 or 0

So if I am able to get another hive going this year and purchase a queen she will have a red dot.  I am on a waiting list for a nuc which is a box with a queen, 10,000 bees and 5 frames of wax that has already been drawn out into the comb, of which two or so frames will be full of brood and the other two or so will be full of honey and pollen.  This is advantageous because the bees will need to eat 8 pounds of honey to produce one pound of wax and they cannot spend their energy making wax when there is nectar to forage in the spring!  So, here's to hoping I am off the nuc waitlist soon!