People often wonder how the the hive gets into the Keenan Family Gallery of Hands-on Biodiversity. Well, wonder no more! Here, the keepers are busy installing the winter colony into the gallery -- the summer bees make the mistake of filling up the comb outside that they can't reach in the winter, so we install a new colony with plenty of honey stores and send the old colony off to retirement at the University of Guelph.
After the old colony is removed and the hive given a cleaning, the new colony is brought in in two sealed combs. Then, it's just a matter of sliding the combs into place while simultaneously removing the tape sealing the openings to the comb -- which is trickier than it sounds! Once the comb is in, the extra food supplies are added and the hive display is resealed.
Our queen is marked with pink to show that she was born this year. However, the paint is proving a little less than perfect, so it's wearing off a little, which means you have to use the usual signs if you want to find her: Look for the bee who's longer than the others, doesn't really have dark stripes, has a black, shiny back (with a bit of pink on it), and is surrounded by a circle of other bees.
Come check out the winter hive today!