Paradise in the Pines - Apiary and Honey Sales

02/04/2026

🐝 A Little Education About Queen Bees 🐝
The Queen bee.
👑She is the only bee in her caste, and while she may be just one individual, she is absolutely vital to the survival of the colony. A healthy queen can lay up to 2000 eggs per day, keeping the hive strong and populated.
But egg laying is only part of her story — and some of the facts about queen bees might surprise you.
👑 Queen bees are NOT rulers
Despite the name, the queen does not rule the hive like a monarch giving orders.
The honey bee colony functions much more like a democracy.
Daily hive activities are guided by pheromones and chemical signals, not commands. And when it comes to big decisions — like choosing a new nesting site during a swarm — the worker bees vote.
The queen’s role is reproductive, not managerial.
👑Queens mate only once (kind of!)
Queen bees can live 2–7 years, which is long-lived by insect standards.
A queen mates during a short window early in her life, flying out to mate with multiple drones over a day or two. After that, she never mates again.
She stores all that genetic material in a special organ and uses it for the rest of her life to lay fertilized eggs. Once she runs out, she cannot replenish it — and the colony will replace her, either naturally or with help from a beekeeper.
Most queens lay well for about 3 years.
👑All fertilized eggs start the same
Here’s a big one:
Queens and workers come from the same fertilized eggs.
Unfertilized eggs → drones (males)
Fertilized eggs → workers or queens
👑So what makes a queen a queen?
Diet
All larvae get royal jelly for the first few days.
After that:
-Worker larvae switch to pollen and honey
-Queen larvae continue receiving royal jelly for their entire development
Nutrition determines destiny.
👑A royal deathmatch
When bees raise a new queen, they often raise more than one — just in case.
But a hive can usually only have one queen.
So when new queens emerge, things get intense.
A newly hatched queen will:
-Sting her unhatched rivals inside their cells
-Or, if two queens emerge at once, fight to the death
Nature does not mess around.
👑Stingers bring both life & death
A bee’s stinger is actually a modified ovipositor — an egg-laying organ.
Queen bees, however, have smooth stingers.
They don’t use them for defense — only to eliminate rival queens.
👑 Royal indigestion
A queen is never alone.
She is constantly attended by a “court” of worker bees who:
-Feed her
-Groom her
-Remove her waste
-Pre-digest her food
Yes — queens rely on workers to digest food for them.
Without this constant care, a queen cannot survive.
👑The Queen's crash diet
Before a colony swarms, worker bees put their queen on a strict diet.
Why?
Because she has to fly — something she rarely does.
To prepare, workers restrict her food so she loses about one-third of her body weight, making it possible for her to fly with the swarm to a new location.
Swarming takes weeks of planning and is risky, but it’s how honey bees reproduce at the colony level.
👑The queen bee is not a ruler — she’s a biological powerhouse, entirely shaped by nutrition, care, and cooperation.

02/04/2026

Let’s talk about the boys in the hive — the DRONES 🐝

Who are the drones?
Drones are the male honey bees.
Their role in the colony is very specific:
-Their primary (and only) job is reproduction.
-They exist to mate with virgin queens during mating flights, helping ensure the future of colonies.
No drones = no mated queens = no future bees.
What drones do NOT do
Drones:
• Do not have a stinger (so they cannot defend the hive)
• Do not collect pollen or nectar
• Do not forage
• Do not build comb
• Do not participate in thermoregulation
-They also have less-developed mouthparts, meaning they cannot feed themselves efficiently.
Because of this, drones must be fed by their sisters — the worker bees.
Do drones help with thermoregulation?
No — thermoregulation is done almost entirely by worker bees.
Worker bees:
• Form heat-generating clusters
• Shiver their flight muscles to create warmth
• Fan their wings to cool the hive
These are coordinated, energy-intensive behaviors, and drones do not take part.
Drones:
• Consume energy
• Benefit from stable hive temperatures
• But do not help maintain them
Seasonal reality: drone eviction
This is one reason drones are evicted in late summer or fall.
When resources tighten, the colony:
• Prioritizes survival
• Reduces mouths to feed
• Removes bees that do not contribute to critical tasks like foraging or thermoregulation
Bee Haven 2026
It’s not cruelty — it’s colony-level decision-making.
-Every bee has a role.
-Every role matters.
-And nature wastes nothing 💛🐝

Send a message to learn more

01/27/2026

How much weight can a honey bee carry when transporting pollen, propolis, or nectar stored in her honey stomach?

Honey bees may be tiny… but don’t let their size fool you — they are incredibly strong.
An average worker honey bee weighs about 90–110 milligrams (that’s her weight without any cargo). When she heads out to forage, she can comfortably carry 30–60% of her body weight — and in some situations, up to her own body weight if conditions allow.
What she’s carrying really matters
🐝 Nectar (stored in the honey stomach):
A forager can carry roughly 30–60 mg of nectar, sometimes more if the nectar is rich and close to the hive.
🐝Pollen (packed into pollen baskets):
Usually 15–30 mg, depending on the pollen type and how moist it is.
🐝Propolis:
This one’s heavy and sticky. Bees carry smaller amounts because propolis is dense and impacts flight much faster than nectar or pollen.
When does flight start to get harder?
30–50% of body weight: normal, efficient flight
60–80%: slower flight, higher energy use
~100%: possible, but difficult — less control, more risk
Bee Haven 2026
Bees rarely “max out” their load unless the resource is very valuable or very close to the hive. They’re excellent energy managers, constantly balancing distance, weather, load size, and colony needs.

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01/20/2026

What do honey bees do in the winter when they have to p**p?

Honey bees do not p**p inside the hive during winter. They are incredibly clean insects.

Here’s what’s happening:
- During winter, bees form a tight cluster to stay warm
-They hold their waste in their re**um for weeks — sometimes even months
-Their winter diet is mostly honey, which produces very little waste
-Healthy bees will not relieve themselves inside the hive unless they are very sick or under extreme stress

Inside the bee (step by step):
-Bees eat honey throughout the winter
-Honey is low in indigestible material → minimal waste is produced
- Waste moves through the digestive system and is stored in the re**um
-The re**um stretches and safely holds waste for long periods
-Special cells in the re**um reabsorb water, helping prevent dehydration
-The bee holds it until conditions are right
Bee Haven 2026
When do they finally go?
On the first mild, sunny day (usually above 50°F), bees take a cleansing flight.
They fly out, do their business mid-air, and head straight back to the hive.

Those little yellow-brown dots you see on snow, cars, or hive lids in late winter or early spring?
✔️ Totally normal
✔️ A great sign your bees are alive and healthy

Nature really did think of everything — even bee bathrooms 😉🐝

01/20/2026

Why does that tiny stinger packs such a punch?

🐝 It’s not the size — it’s the science
The honey bee stinger is actually a modified ovipositor (egg-laying structure), and only female worker bees can sting. While the stinger itself is very small, it’s a highly specialized delivery system.

Here’s what’s really going on:
🐝 Barbed stinger
The worker bee’s stinger has tiny barbs. When she stings mammals with elastic skin, the stinger gets stuck. As the bee pulls away, the stinger tears free from her body — along with the venom sac, muscles, and nerves.
This is why the stinger keeps pumping venom even after the bee flies off.

🐝 Venom continues to inject
The venom sac has its own muscles. That means venom can continue to be injected for 20–60 seconds if the stinger isn’t removed quickly.

What’s in the venom?
Honey bee venom is a complex cocktail, including:
🐝 Melittin
-The main reason a sting hurts
-Causes burning, pain, redness, and swelling

🐝 Phospholipase A₂
-Irritates and damages cells
-Triggers your immune system to react (swelling, itching)

🐝 Hyaluronidase
-Helps the venom spread faster through your skin
-Makes the sting feel worse and last longer

🐝 Alarm pheromones
-Sends a “danger!” signal to nearby bees
-Tells guard bees that a threat is present

Why does it hurt so much?
Pain isn’t about how big the stinger is — it’s about:
-How fast venom spreads
-How strongly it activates pain receptors
-How your immune system reacts

That’s why a tiny honey bee stinger can hurt more than a much larger insect bite.
Bee Haven 2026
-Sting tip
Scrape the stinger out quickly with a fingernail — don’t pinch it. Pinching can squeeze more venom into the skin.

01/12/2026

Let’s talk about trophallaxis

Trophallaxis is how honey bees share food mouth-to-mouth.
It happens worker to worker, worker to drone, and worker to queen.

🐝It has nothing to do with what is being fed — it’s simply the delivery system.
What is fed depends on who is receiving the food.

🐝Worker → Worker
• Nectar or honey
• Often partially processed
• Also spreads enzymes and colony information

🐝Worker → Drone
• Nectar or honey
• Drones are fed by workers inside the hive

🐝Worker → Queen
• Always royal jelly–based glandular secretions
• Never honey
• Never nectar
• Never sugar or fondant
Bee Haven 2026
The queen does not feed herself — she is fed every few minutes by her retinue.

🐝 Do honey bees eat raw nectar?
Yes — foragers may consume raw nectar for quick energy.
But for long-term use, nectar is passed between workers, enzymatically processed, dehydrated, and stored as honey.

01/12/2026

Do Queen Bees Feed Themselves? 🐝

No — queen bees do not feed themselves.

Why doesn’t the queen feed herself?
Even though the queen has mouthparts, they are not designed for self-feeding:
🐝Mandibles
The queen’s mandibles are smooth and narrow. They are built for fighting rival queens and opening queen cells — not for opening honey or nectar cells.
🐝Tongue (proboscis)
The queen’s tongue is shorter and less functional than a worker’s and is not well suited for lapping nectar or honey from cells.
🐝Digestive system
The queen’s digestive physiology is specialized to receive processed food, not raw nectar or honey.

From the moment she emerges — even as a virgin queen — she is biologically dependent on worker bees for nutrition.

So what does the queen eat?
The queen eats royal jelly only.

Royal jelly is:
🐝Made by young nurse bees
🐝Produced from glandular secretions (hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands)
🐝Created after workers digest and process nectar/honey and pollen
The queen is fed through mouth-to-mouth feeding (trophallaxis) by workers in her retinue. She never goes to a cell to eat nectar or honey herself.
Why does it sometimes look like she’s feeding herself?

When a virgin queen emerges, she is often:
• Surrounded by workers
• Near open food cells
From a quick glance, it can look like she’s eating. In reality, workers are feeding her right there on the comb.

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01/11/2026

“Do honey bees reuse cells?
🐝Yes — they absolutely do! Honey bees reuse brood cells constantly, and it’s a huge part of how a colony stays efficient, healthy, and sustainable.

Do baby bees or baby queens clean their own cells when they emerge?
🐝The answer is nope — they don’t. Worker bees, drones, and queens all emerge from their cells and move on. They do not clean the cell they came from.

Here’s what actually happens in the hive:
🐝Once a bee emerges, young worker bees (often called house bees) step in and do the cleanup.
This is part of the hive’s hygienic behavior. These workers meticulously clean out the empty cell, removing cocoon remnants, waste material (called meconium), and any debris left behind. The cleaning is very thorough — the cell must be spotless before it can be reused.
Once cleaned, that same cell is ready to go again. If the colony needs more brood, the queen will lay another egg right in that cell. Over time, as brood is raised again and again in the same cells, the comb naturally becomes darker due to the buildup of cocoon layers — this is completely normal and expected in healthy brood comb.
If brood space isn’t needed, those cleaned cells don’t go to waste. Bees may repurpose them to store honey or pollen, showing just how adaptable and efficient they are with space inside the hive.

🐝Queen cells are a bit different. They do not get reused the same way as worker cells. After a virgin queen emerges, workers often tear the queen cell down rather than clean and reuse it. Emergency and swarm queen cells are typically temporary structures built for a specific purpose.
Bee Haven 2026
Why does all this matter?
Because wax production is incredibly expensive for bees. It takes roughly 6–8 pounds of honey to produce just 1 pound of wax. By reusing comb instead of constantly building new wax, the colony saves massive amounts of energy, time, and resources — energy that can be redirected toward brood rearing, foraging, and survival.
Honey bees really are master recyclers, and this simple process is one of the many reasons they’re such successful and resilient creatures 🐝💛

01/07/2026

Where does royal jelly come from?
And do nurse bees store it?

🐝Royal jelly is made by nurse bees, not collected and not stored.
🐝Nurse bees (usually ~5–15 days old) eat honey (carbs) and pollen (protein)
🐝Their hypopharyngeal glands and mandibular glands convert those nutrients into royal jelly
🐝It’s a glandular secretion, produced internally by the bee
Think of it as freshly made brood food, not a substance sitting around in the hive.

❌ Is royal jelly stored?
🐝No. Royal jelly is not stored in cells or inside bees long-term.
🐝Glands are production sites, not storage tanks
🐝Royal jelly is made on demand

It’s fed immediately to:
🐝the queen (all year)
🐝young larvae (early development)
Bee Haven 2026
This is a really cool fact
🐝Primarily, nurse bees produce royal jelly.
However, if a colony is stressed or short on nurses, older workers can revert to nursing roles. Their glands can partially reactivate and produce smaller amounts of royal jelly–like food. This flexibility (called age Polyethism) helps colonies survive.

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas!!!

12/14/2025

Sooo let’s talk about scout bees! 🐝💛

Scout bees are usually mentioned when a hive is preparing to swarm, but their role is even more fascinating than most people realize.

Who are the scout bees?
-Scout bees are typically older worker bees, usually around 2–3 weeks old, with foraging experience.
-They’re the explorers of the hive, tasked with finding new homes, food sources, and monitoring the environment.

What do they do?
🐝Searching for new homes- When the colony gets crowded, scouts look for the perfect spot — dry, safe, roomy, and with a small, defensible entrance.

🐝Checking & double-checking- Scouts often visit a potential site multiple times to make sure it’s really suitable.

🐝Sharing the news -Using the waggle dance, scouts communicate the location and quality of a site to the rest of the colony.

🐝Helping the colony decide- Different scouts may promote different sites. Through repeated visits and dances, the colony reaches a consensus, and when enough scouts agree, the swarm moves together.

🐝Finding food- Scouts also search for nectar and pollen sources and report them back to the hive.

🐝Watching the environment- They monitor for threats, weather changes, and other conditions that could affect the hive.

🐝 Keeping the hive adaptable- All the information scouts gather helps the colony make smart decisions, keeping it strong and resilient.
Bee Haven 2025
Scout bees may be small, but they’re mighty.
They remind us that communication, teamwork, and careful evaluation are what keep the hive thriving.
Every bee plays a role, and the scouts are a perfect example of the collective intelligence that makes honey bee colonies so remarkable. 🐝💛

12/13/2025

How Honey Bees Make Wax 🐝

-Young worker bees (about 12–18 days old) are the little wax makers.
-They eat honey and actually convert the sugars into wax inside their bodies.
-Tiny, clear wax flakes appear on the underside of their bellies — they look like little fish scales.
-The bees grab those flakes with their legs and chew them to soften and shape the wax.
-They mix in a bit of bee spit (very official 🤣) and start forming the honeycomb.
-The hive must stay warm — around 91–97°F — for the wax to stay workable.
-Once it cools, the comb hardens into those perfect yellow hexagons we all love.
It takes 8 pounds of honey to make just 1 pound of wax… so fresh comb is hard-earned bee gold!
Bee Haven 2025
-Truly… bee magic never gets old. 💛🍯