Yes, you really do want to build an observation hive.

In this first picture, you can see a chubby yellow drone, newly hatched, center top.  You can also see the ladies warming the remaining drone cells by pressing their thoraxes against them, bottom right & just left of center bottom.  Most drones from the brood I placed into the OH have hatched now.

The beautiful weather has returned, and all of the blossoms that have been on hold during the chilly weeks are out there awaiting the bees.  The bees have had no problems navigating their tube.  I have it exiting through a hole in a 2x4, which is set in the window, rather than drilling holes through my walls like real die-hard bee-zerkers would do.  :)  It is rewarding to see the heavy loads of pollen and nectar coming in. The comb is glistening with cells full of golden liquid, and others packed with bee bread.

There is an opening into the tube in the middle of that crowd.

Settling In

Two days after installing the bees, you can see the development of very young brood, the pearly white little commas in the cells.  It is probably not coincidence that this is just about an inch above the first queen cup that was getting so much attention.  3 more queen cups were quickly built along the same stretch of comb, and a couple of others in other locations.  They are surprisingly difficult to get decent pictures of.

The weather took a turn toward more normal March conditions, and the bees in the observation hive have not had any reason to try navigating their tube to go foraging.  

The area center top of this frame of dark brood, where the wax has been built onto the window, is one of the queen cups, with its ever present cluster of attendants.  Notice how uniformly capped this frame of brood is.  It is now 3 days later, and that is changing rapidly. 

If you look at the 9 o'clock position in this picture, you can see a new little lady chewing her way our of her cell.  The newbees are very fuzzy, the light yellow of the fuzz on their thorax clearly identifying them.

Today some of the larger larvae are being capped into their cells.  Those would have been eggs laid 4 days before the frames were moved into the observation hive.   And in the lower frame, you can see an increased number of open cells, vacated by the newly hatched bees.  The drone cells remain capped.  If they are the same age as these ladies, they should make their appearance in 3 days.