Hive to table honey
Our Hives
Amethyst
One of two original hives that we started in 2019. The original queen from the bees we purchased died while transporting the bees to our apiary! It was scary as new beekeepers but the bees raised a new queen, which we named Nefertiti. We first collected honey from this hive in 2020.
Cerulean
The second of two hives that we started in 2019. The original queen from the bees we purchased swarmed within days of bringing it home! Unfortunately, they were not successful in raising a new queen and we had to combine the bees with those in Amethyst so we wouldn't lose them. The very next day, we caught a swarm! The swarm was so big, we eventually put it in two hives which allowed us to grow our apiary. We gave this half of the swarm Queen Anne Boleyn. Honey was first collected from this hive in 2020.
Aurora
Aurora was assembled in July of 2019 to house the other half of the swarm we caught. The original queen from the swarm, named Catherine the Great, was placed in this hive. Honey was first collected from this hive in 2020.
Opal
This hive was a temporary member of the apiary because we could not sell extra bees during the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a split (division of two hives) made from Amethyst when they wanted to swarm in the spring, 2020. The new queen, Topaz, was then raised in our apiary. They were very productive and honey was able to be harvested from them in 2020.
Our Queens
Our queens are not always easy to spot or photograph. We'll post pictures as they become available.
Clover
Clover took over the reins of hive Amethyst in 2023 after the retirement of Janeway. She has some big shoes to fill, but has proven herself thus far, having a hive strong and productive enough to harvest on June 5, 2023! She is a very quiet and still queen on the frames, atypical of first-year queens in my apiary.
Hyzenthlay
Hyzenthlay took over leadership of hive Cerulean in 2023. Her hive is working on our comb honey production this year by use of Hogg Half Comb equipment.
Thethuthinnang
A big name for a big hive! Thethuthinnang was the last queen mated in our apiary in 2023. By the time she took over hive Aurora, it had a huge population and had produced our earliest harvest ever on May 26th. She continues to lead them very productively!
Janeway - Retired
Queen Janeway replaced Miche in her hive after she was moved into the queen castle. Janeway was raised naturally by the bees, so Miche is her mother. Janeway has done a marvelous job, clearly in equal measure as her mother, in taking the reins of a huge population that was left to her. We were able to harvest honey from Amethyst by late June 2022 due to their productivity, and a second harvest is anticipated in the fall.
B'lanna - Retired
B'lanna is the first queen I have introduced into our apiary with outside genetics. She is a Carniolan race queen and was placed into hive Cerulean. She will spend 2022 building up her population of workers. She is named for B'lanna Torres from Star Trek: Voyager.
Uhura - Retired
Queen Uhura replaced her mother in hive Aurora in what is known as an efficient superscedure for the 2022 season. No one really knows why bees will suddenly decide to replace their queen, but it happens. She has shyly and productively ruled her hive. She's been so productive that we used her worker bees to make extra nucs. After making several nucs, we let them begin collecting honey for a fall harvest.
Miche - Retired
After Indego swarmed from Amethyst in June, 2021, they were unsuccessful in raising a new queen. However, extra queen cells from Indego had been moved to a nuc, which raised a queen. That queen was then moved to Amethyst and placed in preparation for winter. She was very successful in bringing a colony through the winter, so we moved her into our queen castle in the spring and she gave rise to most of the queens raised in 2022.
Crescentina - Retired
When Cerulean wanted to swarm in the spring of 2021, Queen Indego was moved to Amethyst because they needed a queen. Cerulean was left to raise a new queen and some of the extra queen cells they created were moved into a nuc. After initially failing to raise a queen, they were given this queen raised in the nuc. With this queen at the reins, they gave us the first Hogg Half Comb to come out of our apiary!
Ciambella - Retired
When Aurora wanted to swarm in the spring of 2021, the queen was moved into a nuc. Aurora was given swarm cells from Cerulean's hive in order to expedite the raising of a new queen. This daughter of Indego was raised and took the reins of the hive in June, 2021.
Fugassa and Friselle - Retired
In 2021, these two queens share the same hive that is internally divided into two halves. This is a special hive, not used to harvest honey. This special hive, which can eventually be divided into four parts, will be used in the future to raise queens in our apiary. But before it can be used for that, wax honeycombs need to be drawn onto the special frames. These queens are helping with that task this year.
Indego - Retired
This queen was raised in our apiary in May, 2020 and ruled hive Cerulean the rest of that season and through winter. She is the daughter of Catherine (the Great). When Cerulean had urge to swarm in the spring of 2021, she was moved to hive Amethyst to rule when that queen went missing. In 2021, Indego left us in a swarm but not before giving rise to most of our new queens.
Sapphire - Retired
This queen took over hive Aurora after Queen Catherine (the Great), her grandmother, was moved to small hive in order to raise more queens in her line. Sapphire decided to have a little adventure in July, 2020 and wandered outside of her hive during an inspection. She made her keepers worry about her for the next week while she was re-introduced to her hive. Now we call her Sapphire the Spitfire! She was moved to a nuc in mid-spring of 2021 to complete her retirement. She may have
Topaz - Retired
This was the queen in hive Opal, which we had temporarily in 2020. She is the daughter of Nefertiti and was raised here in our apiary in May, 2020.
Nefertiti - Retired
In 2019, Nefertiti was the first queen ever to be raised in our apiary and ruled in hive Amethyst. She subsequently gave rise to the queens in Amethyst and Opal for the 2020 season before leaving us in a swarm.
Catherine (the Great) - Retired
One month after becoming beekeepers, we caught our first swarm which was placed into Aurora! This was the queen from that swarm and quickly became our favorite! We did not know how old she was and she passed in 2020, but not before giving rise to several daughters and grand daughters to continue her lineage.
Anne Boleyn - Retired
This was the queen in Cerulean in 2019. She was raised as part of a special breeding program to raise bees that can defend against the Varroa mite, a terrible European honey bee pest.
Hatshepsut - Retired
This queen ruled hive Amethyst in 2020 and through the winter. She is the daughter of Nefertiti and was raised right here in our apiary in May, 2020. She was mysteriously lost from Amethyst in early spring 2021 and her daughters could not raise a new queen from her brood. Indego took over the hive soon thereafter.