I was able to inspect the hive on Saturday. Because of the bad weather that day, all the bees were inside which made it a little difficult to see things due to crowding.
The bees were hived two weeks ago on 10 May. Despite a lot of cold and rainy weather since then, the hive is doing very well.
Elaine shows off our new bees.
— The bees have drawn out the wax foundation into comb on the 10 frames in the box installed on 10 May.
— I saw the queen – she is larger than the other bees but with shorter wings; she also has a blue dot on the back of her head to make it easier to find her.
— The queen is successfully and vigorously laying eggs.
…and here is our Queen!
— Both sides of 3 frames are already capped with wax; most of these cells are developing larvae (capped with yellow wax) which should be emerging as bees in 10-14 days; the remaining cells (capped with white wax) hold honey and a few uncapped cells contain nectar which is concentrated to honey by the bees.
— Another 5 frames in the box are in process of being filled with eggs/larvae, honey and nectar, and the last 2 frames are about 1/3 filled with nectar.
— Because the bees are already working all 10 frames of the first box, I added a second 10-frame box on Saturday, and expect to add the third shortly.
All of this indicates a new hive off to an excellent start and happy with its queen.
