See updates in date order, below the photos....

Posting #1: Isabella, Sophia & the Girls Arrived Today!!!

April 20, 2010

Diane Verploegh reports:

The journey from Georgia to Michigan went well and the new honey bees are happily home in their new hives.

I worked last evening to get all 6,000 bees from their small traveling boxes into the brood boxes. Nerve wracking business, mostly because I worried about squishing someone. Now Isabella & Sophia are snug inside their queen cages in the middle of their hives, waiting to be released by the worker bees.  A mostly happy ending with no stings & only a few squishes.

After a brief conversation last night with Isabella, we decided to start Isabella’s Beelicious Honey Company. She, of course, is the queen, but as her ever loyal attendant, I am the owner & spokesperson for the company. 

Isabella invites you to email her with your questions or comments. Isabella's new email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Posting #2: Greetings From the Queen and I!
May 21, 2010

Isabella & Sophia are laying eggs!!! “How do you know?” you ask. Aside from the fact that Isabella tells me everything, I checked. You can take the top off a hive & pull the frames out to check for eggs & larvae. And guess what…. I saw eggs & larvae! That means new bees soon!   

Isabella lives in a frame filled brood box at the bottom of her hive. She can lay up to 2500 eggs on a good day. When she lays an egg, it’s neither male nor female. Gender is determined by the food the worker bees feed the larvae.

Most larvae are fed a regular kind of food & in about 21 days they hatch as new female worker bees. Other larvae are fed a less nutritious type of food & they hatch as males or drones in about 24 days.  If the hive needs a new queen, the workers select a few larvae & feed them a super food called Royal Jelly which turns the larvae into new queens in about 16 days. Kind of cool, huh?

We started the season with about 3,000 bees per hive but that number will grow rapidly to 40,000 if Isabella & the Girls & I do our jobs. While Isabella & Sophia are busy laying eggs, she wants you to know the Girls are building comb, tending the eggs & larvae & searching for sources of pollen & nectar. For now, my job is primarily checking the hive to see if Isabella & the Girls need anything.

Posting #2: Isbella's Bee Quiz

1. What is a bee’s favorite flower?  (a bee-gonia)

2.  Why do bees hum? (they must have forgotten the words)

3.  Who is a bee’s favorite singer? (Sting)