So, I started out this year with three hives. I painstakingly woodburned the names “Virgo”, “Taurus”, and “Aquarius” on the fronts of the hives so the bees would know which one to go into–well, maybe not for them, but for me.
I’m a Virgo, my boyfriend–he’s Taurus, and I just like the name Aquarius. I always start singing that song……”this is the dawning of the age of Aquarius”……
Back to the story. I believe the last time I reported on the hives there was no queen in one of them and it’s kind of late in the season to introduce a new queen, so I was advised by fellow beekeepers to combine the two hives. To combine a hive you take the top and inner cover off the queenright hive, place a sheet of newspaper over the top box, then set the queenless hive on top. The bees eat through the paper to get out and then they come back to the same hive. It gives the bottom hive more workers to do bee things like collect pollen and nectar, drag out dead bees, and so forth.
They really do eat the paper, see?
I’ll have to watch for little black and white bee poops around the yard.
So, what’s the name of this hive? I’m calling it Virtaurius.
Wild Things Farm 