Today, we opened the hive to check on its progress and see if she had been released. She was! All that was left was part of the candy plug, which was being checked out by one worker and two small hive beetles. I killed the beetles (they are a hive PEST!) and took out the queen cage, gently encouraging the worker to leave it. She took the hint and flew off.
Checking the bars from the empty end, we found one right away that was attached to two bars (cross-combing). I used the hive tool to scrape part of the comb off. Unfortunately, it was so heavy it fell to the bottom of the hive! Oops! It was full of nectar and bee bread.
There were several more bars of comb. Many had drone cells that still hadn't hatched. We did a little comb maintenance while looking for the Queen. And finally, we found her! The red dot made it easy to see her. We also observed some single eggs laid in the bottom of the cells, so we know she has been laying eggs. The laying worker is still going, and probably will until we have some open brood. Apparently, the pheromones from the brood help to suppress the laying workers. Check out this video!
We left the hive as we found it. The only issue we've really been having is with paper wasps starting nests in the lid! I think we need to fix some window screen across the top so they can't get in.
Some more pictures....
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| There she goes! With the red dot! |
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| Lots of drone comb, still... |
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| A bee passage through the comb. SO COOL. |
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