Someday my Queen Bee will come…just not today.  My Honey Bees have let me down again.  The last time we checked the Chuck BEEly Hive things looked hopeful.  The Queen cells were empty, there was plenty of Worker Bee brood comb, and honey production had increased.  All signs that a new Queen had assumed the throne.  However now my hive is nothing more than a frat house for Drones!  My hive is filled with Drone cells and missing a healthy balance of Worker Bee brood.  My Queen Bee is obviously gone, and my hive is in turmoil once again.

The boys of summer, Drones, have taken over Chuck BEEly Hive.  Drones are produced by an unfertilized egg laid by a Worker Bee, without a Queen present to fertilize it.  The sole purpose of a Drone is to mate with a Queen, and not even the Queen of Chuck BEEly Hive.  Drones mate with the Queen of a different hive, and then die.  So while they wait for this moment, they spend their days lounging around my hive, eating my precious stores of nectar, and doing very little if anything to contribute to the hive’s wellbeing during this tumultuous time.  They do not help the Worker Bees, they don’t collect pollen, they can’t even sting if there’s an intruder!  In fact, Drones invite intruders into my hive.  Mites prefer to feed on Drones because they take longer to hatch and Mites love the easy food source of the capped cell.  Drone cells also also take a little longer to be capped, giving the Mites more time to reproduce.  This all means more trouble for my struggling Chuck BEEly hive.

I should have known something was wrong with my Queen, because barely any Bees were exiting or entering my Hive compared to the others.  A sure sign the Worker Bees were under stress.  Dad is optimistic though.  Once again there are two new Queen cells in the hive.  It takes about 16 days for a Queen to hatch, and then another week before she starts laying eggs.  So Dad is giving them another chance for a new leader to take charge.  I don’t feel so generous, and think they should be combined with a stronger hive like we did last fall.

However, they won’t be combined with Azzza Hive again!  They too are having problems.  The Ants are back with a vengeance, and this time have infiltrated Azzza Hive!  When we last checked Asa’s hive the Bees were at the point where they could start making honey for us to harvest.  But this most recent check revealed they haven’t even touched the honey super we added to their hive.  Instead the Bees are too busy defending their brood and nectar stores from these tiny predators.  The Worker Bees assigned to guarding the entrance are no match for the Ants’ relentless march.  Our attempt at blocking them with sticky goop didn’t work.  In fact, these Ants are using the bodies of their departed comrades stuck to the sticky goop as bridges to climb the bricks and get to the hive.  Dad is trying a new method his friend recommended of creating a moat around the bricks supporting the hive.  Truth be told, he and Mom sacrificed a lot by ordering take-out all weekend to get the containers needed to make the moats!  Ants may have gotten around the sticky goop, but they certainly can’t swim!  Paws crossed Dad’s plan works, and the Ants can no longer attack the hive.  Thus allowing the Bees to get back to the important work of making honey for me to attack…oops I mean eat!

It’s not all doom and gloom.  The Dire Wolf Beez and Lemeez Hive are both doing great!  The Dire Wolf Beez have been hard at work filling the frames of one and a half boxes.  Lemeez Bees are doing even better and have surpassed them all with two boxes of frames almost full.  Problem is Lemeez Hive is filled with ornery Honey Bees, that don’t like it when Dad checks on them.  Perhaps it is because they know what chaos Chuck BEEly and Azzza Hives are in and want to take matter into their own wings and not trust Human intervention?  I may have to agree with them there.  Whatever the case, they are aggressive with Dad when he opens their hive, so Mom doesn’t dare come close to take photos.  She doesn’t have the protective outfit like Dad.  But rest assured, that hive is doing awesome, and has a healthy mix of Drone and Worker Bee brood cells to make for a happy hive and not a frat hive!