Meet the Queen
The first time I saw the queen, I was surprised.
Mostly because I thought I’d already seen her. Turns out, I’d only seen a drone.
After finally learning to recognize the drones, I figured spotting the queen would be easy.
It wasn’t. It isn't.
Finding the queen is a little like playing Where’s Waldo.
You know she’s in there somewhere.
Thousands of bees.
One queen.
Good luck.
Rene almost always spots her first.
Actually…
I think he has every single time.
He’ll calmly say,
“There she is.”
Meanwhile, I’m still staring at thousands of bees thinking,
Where?
But something interesting happens the first time you really see her.
Once you see the queen…
There is no doubt.
You know it.
She’s long.
Sleek.
Elegant.
Nothing like the drones I kept mistaking her for.
Rene once told me she looks like a peanut.
He wasn’t wrong.
The problem was…I was looking for the shell of the peanut.
The queen looks much more like the peanut itself, long and smooth, not the big, round shell I’d imagined.
She doesn’t exactly hide.
The workers hide her.
They seem to part just enough to let her pass… Then they quietly close in around her again.
It makes finding her even harder.
The queen, despite her name, is not actually the boss.
You think she’s issuing orders but really she’s simply doing the one job only she can do.
Laying eggs.
Thousands of them.
Every single day.
She’s the mother of the colony, not its manager.
The workers feed her.
Groom her.
Protect her.
The colony depends on her.
But it also depends on every worker surrounding her.
If you ever visit our apiary and we happen to spot the queen together, you’ll hear me get excited every single time.
Not because she’s rare but because she doesn’t always choose to be seen.
And when she does, it feels a little like nature has shared a secret with you.
Thank you for spending a little time in the hive today.
Until next time,
~ Tracy 🐝
**Not my pictures, I have not yet successfully been able to photograph a queen yet.
So interesting. Thank you for sharing.