finding new home…………………….

enough is enough. this morning one of my colonies had decided to split. this is part and parcel of the lives of honeybees. when a colony becomes too large for the beehive or the exsiting queen is no longer that productive, the colony will have a family conference on deciding who will be the next queen. they will then identify a few young larvae to feed them with royal jelly. after 16 days, new queen will start emerging.  the first new queen that comes out from the cell will try to prevent the other young queen from breaking out from the cell. the old queen will have two choices, either she try to retain her position or gracefully bring part of the colony away to find a new home. so this colony in the photo shows that the queen had taken the graceful way by leaving the hive with some of her loyal subjects. well that’s life!