For those of you who love my “Bee Reports” — here’s the first of this season! Three of our queens and their hives successfully overwintered. We caught some swarms, split one of our hives, and bought some new nucs, so our hive boxes are once again full of buzzing bees. Below are my notes on the queens and hives who survived and the new ones we’ve adopted since I last posted an update.

#1 – Boudica III

Boudica III survived winter. Her genes are mean and supreme. She is the descendant of the original Boudica, who was also a strong queen. (Boudica I swarmed in the spring of 2022. She was lightning fast, and we were unable to catch her. Her and her feral descendants are hopefully off populating new wild and woolly Hereford hives.)

#2 – Elizabeth II

Also survived winter. Her hive hums along. Never the most bustling hive but a solid player in the honey production game.

#3 – Argine (a.k.a. the Queen of Clubs)

A new queen, taking over for Cleopatra, who unfortunately didn’t make it.

#4 – Deborah

Three cheers for you if you already knew that Deborah means “bee.” Deborah is also an alternative name for the medieval Irish saint, St Gobnait, who battled brigands by sending bees after them. She was the original Bee Whisperer. Deborah is taking up residence in Pandora’s old hive box.

#5 – Dottie

Most of my queens are named after strong women. I’ve been reading Geena Davis’ memoir, DYING OF POLITENESS, the tale of her “journey to badassery” for my book club. Debated naming this queen Geena but decided to go with one of her most iconic roles, Dottie from A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. She is in Aethelflaed the Undead’s hive box. Losing Aethelflaed was a bummer but with her history, her spirit might live on and she will embolden Dottie to become a super-producer.

#6 – Dahlia

Maybe I was stuck on “D” or maybe I just adore dahlias? The mildly named Dahlia supplants Buffy the Varroa Mite Slayer. She has some big shoes to fill!

#7 – Rebecca (a.k.a. Boudica II)

Elphaba, the queen whose name we crowd-source on Instagram, didn’t make it. Ugh. Losing hives is always hard – maybe more so when I name them? I’m sure other beekeepers think I’m bonkers. The Boudica line has strong swarm genes. Rebecca reigns over our most recently caught swarm. She swarmed (for the second time, see below) on my bestie and fellow beekeeper Rebecca’s bday and we put her in Elphaba’s old hive box.

Hives #8 and #9 are at Lisa Duff’s Oak Spring Farm

#8 – Clover (a.k.a. Boudica IV)

Clover’s hive box was first occupied by Tempest, who was a fantastic queen. But we lost her last summer. When Boudica II first swarmed, we caught her and took her to Lisa’s. She hung out there, successfully overwintered, and then swarmed again (because the Boudicas are overachievers). We caught her again, brought her back home to the Windtree Bee yard, and renamed her Rebecca to avoid confusion. Her Oak Spring Farm progeny is now named Clover, after one of honeybees’ favorite foods.

#9 – Meadow (a.k.a. Boudica V)

When we lost Gaia, the former queen of this box, Craig took some queen cells and nurse bees from box #8 and put them in this empty hive box. We’ve had mixed luck with “splits” (that’s what it’s called when beekeepers create a new hive that way), but this one was successful. I decided not to pressure the new queen with unrealistic expectations, so I named her after a small, beautiful place, instead of an entire belief system and the personification of the Earth itself. While I don’t think Gaia’s name had anything to do with her undoing (it was hive beetles), Meadow’s probably more chill knowing she doesn’t have the weight of the world riding on her shoulders.

Honorable Mention – Frankenstein

Frank is a garden, not a queen bee. Our bee yard is a rough square to one side of our house. Along the road is a split rail fence with cherry trees and pines. There’s an old shed in the corner and then a row of forsythia that we planted in memory of my mom. (She loved those flowering yellow spring bushes!) Then we’ve got a line of beehives hidden amongst some arborvitae. The last edge of the bee yard is bounded by our house and a little garden where we used to have only wildflowers. Every year it was an utter mess, but I loved it – and so did the bees and the butterflies.

We’ve lived in our house for nearly twenty years. Over that time, we’ve received lots of beautiful plants, bulb flowers, herb bushels, etc. None of them ever match anything else in our yard, so we plant all our cute little orphans in the Frankenstein Garden. Honestly, it’s one of our favorite parts of the yard. We installed some bird feeders and a bird bath, which the bees use more than the birds. It’s a work-in-progress, but also perfect just the way it is. 🙂