A bevy of queen bees have made it to their new empire at Spry Farm after getting a lift from their new mom’s dad.
Leanne Spry had put out a call last Monday for a volunteer to pick up the new queen bees in Winnipeg for delivery to The Spry Farm in La Vallee, a local agritourism and small‑farm business offering dog training, a mobile petting zoo and local honey from their own beekeeping operation run by Leanne and husband Tyler.
In the end, her father, who doesn’t mind a long drive, retrieved the 20 queen honeybees and their accompanying worker bees, who will be integrated into the Spry hives.
“I was planning to go with my sons, but he offered to go (he likes road-tripping), so it worked out great!” Leanne said.
Beekeeping operations often bring in new queens to keep colonies strong, productive, and healthy. Queens are the engine of the hive but only stay at peak fertility for one to two years, and when they falter, the whole colony declines.
