At last the farmy is looking springy. I even mowed the lawns yesterday. Gardened for hours wearing a heat wrap to protect my back. And look at our new header, it says it all.
Charlotte’s shape is slowly changing.
I told her to open her eyes for this picture or it would look like she was dead. “She is too Fat to move her eyelids!” smartly grunted Sheila from out the back.
“Shut up in the cheap seats.” called back Char.
Donna’s magnolia is flowering in her garden out to the South.
Now, here is something interesting at the bee hives. Look below: This hive is very still the bees just sit all day. It is the weaker hive that took the brunt of the cold that first night they were here. 
Compare their inactivity with the hive below. It is busy, pollen is being brought home, bees are fanning at the door and they have set up the guards and the doormen.
Our little hive has lost its queen, almost definitely. They are drinking more sugar water (not foraging) , despondent, disorganised and still, just clinging to the side of the hive. The other hive is roaring along. I shall call the bee man today and see if he can fedex out a new queen for them. Hopefully they can hang on until she arrives. But isn’t that interesting, the huge and very obvious difference the queen makes to the hives mood. I shall keep you posted.
Good morning. Let’s hope all MY worker bees turn up today. I had better get going early so that everything is ship shape before they all arrive. With two crews (roofing and dry-walling) working in the same space it will be busy. If they all arrive that is, you never know.
Have a lovely day.
your friend, celi
cc
The Kitchen's Garden 
57 responses to “Sometimes piggies are not pretty but bees always are …”
I know exactly how Charlotte feels! Sorry about the queenless bees – it just shows how important a good female is to any species. Our men would be lost without us.
Enjoy the excitement of roofing and walling progress today. No doubt there will be pictures soon…
Love,
ViV xox
it is later in the morning now and evidently the roofers cannot be here until tomorrow (maybe) and the drywaller got his dates mixed up and should be here next week.. sigh.. sigh.. however it is a stunner of a day!! c
Good morning Celi ; glad to see the one hive doing well the queen is very important to the hive their director in the movie of life . the pigs are looking great very comfortable . mine is not even bred yet finding a boar is proving a little bit harder than first believed have a blessed day mike
Hmm, well I hope you can find her a boyfriend! morning mike, love to missy! c
A bee hive is an incomprehensible thing to me. They have guards and doormen? How do they all know what to do? How do they communicate to each other that the queen has died? It’s just too amazing. (Or am I just too dense?)
Oh you would love the doormen, they are quite picky- girls in very short skirts carrying water get in before the fat older bees lugging in buckets of pollen strapped to their legs!! It is wild! c
Have you read about something inexplicable killing bees (and hives) all over the US, miss c? I meant to mention it before when you lost the hives. My dim little brain can’t recall any more, but Google will remember.
morning sweetie, yes i have read about it, it seems that it is almost definitely thepollen from the GM crops and a terrible lack of wild flowers.a weak hive is so susceptible so my plan is to build strong hives. i am not ready to give up yet though! nor are my bees.. c
Yes, ‘Colony Collapse’ and NeoNic, ‘treated seed’. *sigh* The stupidity and greed of Man, yeah?
Good morning Miss C – I hope your back continues to improve with the heat pack. And doesn’t Miss Charlotte look ever so comfy? Snug as a bug in a rug.
I do hope your Queen Bee comes soon, there is something so sad about the little hive all sitting around when their neighbours are so active and busy (and buzzy).
Now, a funny thing: I was sure I had left a wee note here somewhere to ask if I could have a tree in the Fellowship Forest, if it wasn’t too late to ask, but I think WordPress ate it. So now it might be really, really too late – but what do you think? Could I have a Fellowship Tree? In my head they are all going to be Ents and Entwives, of course.
Your name is on my list for a lovely tall silent Ent. It is never too late. The Fellowship Forest will be a slow process but you shall have your tree! c
Oh Miss C that is wonderful! Thank you, so much. I wonder what I can offer in kind – I will have a think x
We can ask for a tree in our name? Does your future forest have room for one more? 😀
You might have to start a page just for your forest of friends. Or forest friends? LOL
We have always wanted to plant a tree for every Christmas tree we have had. (I need 20 so far!) This spring we are planting 2 Lilacs. 18 more to go.
that is so very interesting bout the bees. a little piece of the universe at work right there! i hope they can cheer up and live if you get them a new queen! when is the piglet due?
Piglets are due June 17, so a little while to go yet! c
OH yes they are ALL beautiful
the trials and tribulations of the Farmy….Bees with no Queen, and Miss C with her babies…Bless them all…I do hope that you will be able to get a new Queen , they look so sad without any work to do…. Great day to you too m’dear
I’m still fascinated by the fact that you can get bees in the post!
VERY interesting about the bees and I hope that you manage to get a new queen A.S.A.P. to fill that pheromone gap!
Christine
Hang on little bees!
Yes, hurry we need to crown a new queen!! What an amazing thing though, that without one, a whole hive is lost and that their only purpose is to bring up their next generation…It’s also amazing that not even one bee from that hive will or can join the other one so close by….Bees are so much more complex that anyone could imagine! This is honey for thought!!
I hope she gets there as fast as she can!! But I’m wondering…will they accept a new queen?? Yes, I think they will!! 🙂
Hang in there little bees! Spring is finally here!
The look in Charlotte’s eye is priceless! That’s truly a hairy eyeball look if ever there was one. 🙂 It truly is remarkable the difference a queen makes to a hive…I had no idea. Sure hope they can hang on. Can’t wait to see you fellowship tree project coming along. We love trees.
Charlotte can cast some pretty wicked looks!! c
For some there must be an in-charge person…or someone that is loved very much so the work is a labor of love not a duty. Very interesting!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com