Pink Hive
This hive is by far the "slower" of the two hives in my backyard. The queen isn't impressing me.
Here is the top of the hive - looks just fine:
Nice to see young larvae:
But I really don't like the pattern - kind of spotty and irregular:
Didn't see the queen, but saw enough young larvae to tell me she is there. Going to keep an eye on this hive.
Brown Hive
Now *this* is what a good pattern looks like:
Not a lot of gaps / missing cells (those bullet-looking ones are drone cells, another sign of a healthy thriving hive)
While I was inspecting the hives, I looked over and saw that I had a helper!
A few weeks ago we think she actually got stung by a bee, trying to eat it (the side of her face/lip was swollen for a few days!)
Sutton
Recall that last week we discovered a queenless hive, and lots of queen cells. I made 2 nucs as a result, and wanted to check things out. It's too early to expect any new eggs, but a check wouldn't hurt.
Here is evidence of a born queen having torn out her rival's cells:
But then something surprised me: One of the nucs still had sealed queen cells!
Given all of the cells were about the same age, I wouldn't have expected that. According to bee math, the queen cells can be capped for 9 days, so technically it is possible...
So we'll wait and see another few weeks.
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