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.
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.
Wondering if you would post the plans for the observation hive and super.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks,
Gary