The queen is here, long live the queen!

Yesterday at the end of the day, I got a call from the post office that Her Majesty had arrived and would I please come and get her. Apparently the postman did go to my house to deliver her, but I was at work. I was instructed to come to the back of the post office and call the employee on my cell and she would come out to meet me.

I told the caller that I wouldn't be finished at work until 7 PM and she still wanted me to come to pick up the queen. I loved picking up the queen. Mrs. Campbell who came out of the back of the building to deliver her to me was quite concerned. "I don't hear any buzzing," she said. I assured her that the queen was probably fine. I drove home and wished I had opened the package so Mrs. Campbell could see Her Majesty.



I've never ordered a queen in the mail before and was fascinated by the package with all of its admonitions.


Here is the queen cage - I didn't get a good picture. I didn't want to flash a bright light on the queen and her attendants. We have had stormy weather for the last four days and I was worried I would not be able to install her. Tonight the skies cleared a little and when I got home at 6 PM, even though I never work the bees at the end of the day, I decided to go ahead and put her in the hive.

I opened Devorah, took the cork out of the candy end of the queen cage, used a twist tie to suspend the cage between the center frames. I hope these bees will release her and adapt to her presence. This hive has so many bees and good stores. I really want it to make it through the winter.