Brood!

Phew, that's a relief!.

It was such a lovely day today that the lure of an inspection just couldn't be resisted! The very good news is that there is brood (larvae) in my "Blue" Hive; the one that lost it's queen.  It was queenless for a while (probably since sometime in the middle or early July) and I only managed to introduce a new queen on 25 August, about 10 days ago.  I had hoped that some queen cells would develop, but that didn't happen. Anyway, three days after introducing her I checked to see if things were going well. Yes, she had been released, but I saw no sign of her.  But, rather than look for her I decided the best course of action would be to leave things alone and check again in a few more days.  I have been here before and the last time I went looking for her I clearly disturbed things and the queen did not take!

So in I went today and saw some nice larvae, probably about 5 days old, nicely packed into a frame.  I am quite relieved! The hive is nice and heavy with stores and the bees in the hive seem much more settled.  They are working and walking over the frames in a much more settled way.  While they were queenless they really didn't look like they had much "purpose".  I know this is a bit of a cliche, but they definitely were not right!

My other "at home" hive (the "White" Hive") seems busy and full of bees too.  I saw densly packed brood in a couple of frames in the top (of three) boxes and I removed the Mite Away Quick Strip residue.  They also have a lot of stores to carry them through winter. I suspect this hive will need to be watched for swarming in early spring! So place your orders now for a split!