Hello family and friends! I haven’t found my way here in a bit, you would think staying home during a pandemic would give one lots of free time. As a bit of an introvert, I have quite enjoyed working from home and there is always a project to do with bees and a big yard. I was away this weekend to visit my favorite oldest daughter, and find myself with a bit of a free evening. So here are a few photos I have been meaning to share.

A beautiful frame from my hive Titan2 on July 3, 2020. Can you find the queen? She has a nice blue dot on her thorax. ©Erik Brown

This is the same Titan2 frame a bit closer in. The queen here is a little more hidden. ©Erik Brown

Every beekeeping course will tell you to check below the inner cover (this piece here) just to make sure the queen is not on it. Normally she is somewhere in the frames, and in five years of beekeeping before July 3 I have never seen her here. ©Erik Brown

QueenSpotting

This post inspired by a lovely book of the same name with stories of beekeeping and lots of can-you-find-the-queen photographs. The author, Hilary Kearney, keeps bees in California and writes The Girl Next Door blog. The search for the queen gets progressively harder and I am not through the entire book yet. A fun gift for your favorite beekeeper.

May you prosper and find honey.