With the new colony settling in we decided it was time to check on them again to see how they were doing. We wanted to check on how the brood was developing.
We opened up the hive (which they have now sealed with propolis) to find a small mound of burr comb in the middle of the frames. We gently removed the comb and put it aside. Now it was time to check the frames.
The frames closest to me were pretty much empty. Once we went through all of the frames we stuck the outside frame in between some full frames so the bees will build comb on it. Otherwise they’ll just stay in the center and not use the outside frames.
The queen we found almost immediately. I love having a marked queen as it makes it so much easier to find her. Finding her when checking the hive lets you know she’s still there.
If you remember, last week we found lots of eggs. Now all those eggs have become brood, most of which is capped. You can see capped honey in the upper left hand corner, pollen below that and then a very nice pattern of worker brood comb.
With a close up you can see some of the larvae in the cells. These will be eventually capped like the rest of the brood. Now that we know the colony is doing well and that the queen is well bred we’ll leave them alone for awhile.
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How exciting! I've been reading a few blog updates regarding bees today… I'm quite jealous! Maybe I'll expand into beekeeping next season, but for now I'll enjoy watching from a (safe) distance. Haha! Congrats!