I had just put the swarm nuc (white) in my backyard a few days ago, and this weekend I had a chance to check it out closer.
I had originally the 2 frames in it, and you can see there a good number of bees in it.
I didn't see the queen, but I didn't look too closely. I'll let things settle in first. I added more frames.
Blue Nuc
The Blue Nuc was made up from some swarm cell frames from the Brown hive 2 weeks ago.
But I was surprised to see the same swarm cells on the bottom of the frame!
It is definitely past the time that those queens should have hatched. I'll give it more time, but I am not hopeful.
Grey Nuc
The bees were busy bringing in nectar on the Grey nuc - a good sign.
Then I saw what I was looking for on the next frame:
Do you see her? A nice new queen bee! I nabbed her and gave her a nice white dot!
I'll leave her there and let her do her thing.
Green Hive
Ah, the wonky comb (sigh)...
I verified that the queen was not there, and most of the drone brood was hatched. So I took out the frames, and put them on top of the hive (outside) so the bees can rob the honey from it.
Why can't they follow instructions like this? :
In the upper chamber, the bees stored a good amount of honey. So they are doing well.
Here's the white-dotted queen (I always like finding and taking pictures of the queen!)
And some good brood frames:
Again, this hive shows no inclination to swarm - good!
Pink Hive
Right after the winter I swapped brood chambers on the pink hive. It's not something I usually do, but I tried it to see if it made any difference. Up until now, the brood has remained in the lower chamber.
This week I noticed the beginnings of the brood cluster moving into the upper chamber. Here's a frame from the top chamber. You can see in the lower part the arc of brood just starting.
Brown Hive
The Brown Hive is bringing in lots of nectar. No evidence of a queen (yet).
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