I forgot to show everyone Will’s video of me searching for the queen! I was doing one final hive visit while the weather was above 55 and sunny. I was a bit worried about getting in another visit before winter set in since it had been in the low 40’s the previous week. I left work early to get to my hive before the sun started setting. My main mission: check on honey stores and the queen.
Since it had been so cold I believed the queen’s egg production would have slowed down or stopped by then. This means the only way to tell if the queen is alive is by actually finding her. Previously I’ve had a lot of trouble finding Rosalinda since she is unmarked. (Most people will request a “marked” queen that is painted with a small dot on her back.) I searched for a good 15 minutes in the lower deep and I finally found her! She is huge compared to the other bees, even the drones who are significantly larger than the workers. I won’t make you sit through the entire 15 minutes of searching – but Will caught her on tape. The clip of Rosalinda’s hollywood debut is below!
Still eagerly waiting for news on your lip gloss making experiment ;-)
Thank you for reminding me!!! I wrote a post during Thanksgiving but must have forgotten to hit post!