Three Times

Hive #1 is packed with bees

I went through the entire box of hive #3, frame by frame, three times and found no queen and no sign of a queen.  This was two weeks after installing the queen. Last week, though , lo and behold, I found a frame full of eggs.  Just one frame.  I wondered if these were dead eggs, ones I had put in from another hive, perhaps one that had died.  A few days later, I looked again and there were numerous frames with eggs, all centered in the cells and a good, full pattern.  Now the early larva is being capped, workers are bringing in pollen and it looks like all is well.  I still haven't seen the queen, but she may be just very shy of the light and quickly hides.  Regardless, I think we now have two verified queenright hives.  It just goes to show that it can take awhile for a newly bred queen to begin laying, even two weeks or more after the fact.

Hive #3 is the one with the blue top.

I added a second super to hive #1, the tall hive in the photo above.  The super I put on last week is probably 75% drawn out and already quite heavy.  Clover in the grass is just starting to come on, and I haven't seen honey bees on it yet so they are getting their nectar from other sources right now.  I always question those who are so sure of the source of their honey, unless they live in an area where there truly is one dominant source.  Here, there are so many possibilities that I can't ever say with any certainty what kind of honey the bees are making.

Not a good photo but you can see plenty of new, white comb.

Even when doing a quick entry into a hive, I always fire up the smoker these days.  Invariably, if I try to do anything without the smoke, I pay for it.  I do try to use natural fuel, wood I have chipped up with our chipper/shredder, mostly from dead pine trees.