The Ultimate Mother: The Queen Bee
What does that mean? Well, here at The Hive, we have 30 extraordinary mothers to honor—our queen bees! Each colony has a single queen, the heart and soul of her hive, tirelessly laying up to 1,500 eggs a day. That’s like giving birth to an entire small town every week! Without her, the hive would quite literally cease to exist.
But being the queen isn’t just about making babies. She’s a leader in the truest sense. Her thousands of daughters—the worker bees—handle everything from nursing the young and guarding the entrance to foraging for nectar and pollen. They constantly provide for her, feeding her and ensuring she remains strong and healthy. Talk about breakfast in bed!
The Queen’s Invisible Crown: Pheromones Rule the Hive
So, how does one tiny bee keep thousands of others in line? Pheromones. The queen produces a special cocktail of chemical signals that influence the behavior of her workers, keeping them motivated and ensuring the hive runs smoothly. Her pheromones tell the workers that she’s healthy and laying eggs, suppress the urge for new queens to develop, and even encourage cooperation among her daughters. Without her scent, the hive falls into chaos—worker bees may start laying unfertilized eggs, or the colony might raise a new queen to take her place. She literally leads with her presence!
When It’s Time to Expand: Swarming Season
Each spring, something incredible happens: healthy colonies want to expand by splitting in two. In the wild, this means half of the bees—along with their reigning queen—depart in a grand swarm to find a new home, leaving behind a fully stocked hive and young bees ready to raise a new queen. Talk about selflessness! Imagine a mother raising thousands of kids and then saying, "Alright, half of you go start your own successful household, and I’ll take the rest and build a new home from scratch."
Our Role: Helping the Hive Thrive
While we admire nature’s brilliance, we also know losing half of our bees isn’t ideal. That’s why we step in with a strategy we call an "assisted swarm." When our colonies show signs that they’re ready to split, we carefully divide them ourselves. Some of the new hives get to raise their own queens, preserving the resilient genetics of those who survived winter. Others receive a queen that we introduce, ensuring we maintain a diverse and thriving bee population. It’s a win-win—nature's way of keeping the hive strong, with just a little human assistance.
A Mother’s Day Gift Fit for a Queen
When you gift your Mom a four-pack of our session meads this Mother’s Day, know that the bees would totally approve. But why stop there? The best gift of all is quality time. Sit down, raise a glass, and toast to the incredible queens in your life—whether they have two legs, four legs, or six legs and wings!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there!
