Six Figs Farm LLC

In one of our hives, two weeks ago, we could find no signs of the queen. We didn’t see her, and we couldn’t see any eggs or any uncapped brood (young baby bees). Those things together mean that something had happened to the queen- uh-oh! The queen is the only bee in each hive that lays eggs, so when there is no queen, there are no babies, and therefore the population drops. That can cause a load of problems, and the hive needs help!

Bees are able to create their own queen, but only with the right circumstances. We needed to act…

When eggs are laid in a hive, any one of them can be made into a queen, if the bees feel it’s necessary. The baby bee that is deemed queen material is fed a special diet of royal jelly, and her cell is made longer and wider. After the larvae has developed sufficiently, the cell is capped- covered over with wax- for the final transformation into queen bee.

We placed a frame with a swarm cell- capped queen cell from another hive- into the queenless hive, hoping that when the queen came out, the hive would accept her and there would be only a short lapse in population growth. If it didn’t work, that meant another couple of weeks with decreasing population, and the hive would be at great risk while we either tried this again, or purchased a queen.

Yesterday, when we went into that hive, we found that our plan had worked. We had a new queen, like the one in the photo below! Happy dance! We also saw eggs, so the new queen is already laying. Now, the hive can increase in numbers back to a state of thriving health. We had a contest among our email subscribers, and the winning entry for the queen’s name was Hope. Long live Queen Hope!

We started with bees in 2020 to pollinate our elderflowers. Because we love pollinators, we had, for the previous two years, planted white clover everywhere as a cover crop, allowed the wild blackberries to flourish, and added plants for pollinators in many places.

Our bees’ primary sources for honey are wild blackberry blossoms in the spring, and elderflower in the summer, along with clover and many wildflowers.

Way back when I was seven, I had an anaphylactic reaction to an insect sting. Previously, I loved to let bees land on my hand, and “play” with them gently- no bees were harmed. I’d gather up flowers for them. Then, shots twice a week came along with advice to not go near anywhere “stinging insects” might be. After being treated for two years, I was told I’m no longer allergic to stinging insects. Having honeybees has been a childhood dream come true.

We did a lot of research before we decided to embark upon beekeeping. We took a beekeeping class as a family, and read everything we could find on the internet. Just like with everything else, if you ask 3 beekeepers how to do something, you’ll get 4 contradictory answers.

We started that first year with 2 overwintered nucs. There was so much to learn, so much to figure out. This was 2020, and the pandemic shut everything down right after we got our bees, so we were only able to go to one local beekeeping meeting. Both hives swarmed a month after we got them, and we caught both swarms. We harvested a small amount of honey in June. And we saw our bees everywhere, pollinating our elderflowers, our blueberries, the wild blackberries, clover, and all the other myriad flowers. The learning curve with beekeeping is steep, and that first honey was some of the best honey we’ve ever had in our lives. We were hooked.

Now in 2022, we’re in our third year of beekeeping, and feeling a little more confident in it. At least, we’ve learned a ton of things that don’t work and aren’t good ideas….And we love it. We love beekeeping, love the bees, and enjoy so much learning about it all. So, we decided to step it up this year. We started out the year with the same 2 hives, split those, got 5 overwintered nucs, and put out swarm traps. As of right now, we have 11 hives. Some are going gangbusters and some are building up.

We love watching the bees going to and fro from their hives. We love seeing our bees out and about on our farm. Seeing the queen in a thriving hive is a thrill. Every single week we learn something new. If you’re considering starting with bees, we’d encourage you to do it. It’s hard, it’s overwhelming, your brain will hurt. But, the first time you see your honey from your bees is worth every single moment of trying to figure out what you should do with the swarm cell. Seeing your bees pollinating your zucchini is worth that time you were trying to figure out how to get the swarm down from the tree.

If you want to take up beekeeping, do it. Take a class, read some stuff, find a mentor, and be prepared to learn more than you have in a long long time.

If you want to enjoy our honey, and not have to suit up in 90 degree heat, we’ll be letting our email subscribers know as soon as we have 2022 honey available. If you want to be on our email list, you can sign up here.