Bee inspection, with photos
First a little history about these bees. The swarm was caught near Bradford-on-Avon on the 15th June and they went in our hive on Saturday 16th June. We just transferred them on the three National sized brood frames (foundation) they came on, filling the rest of the brood box with eight 14×12 frames of foundation. The attached photos are from the inspection on 28th June, 12 days later. In each case, click for a high resolution photo.
This is the best 14×12 frame. It was clean foundation 12 days ago. Now it has capped stores at the top, larvae in the middle and pollen, including some amazing pink stuff, towards the bottom.
Bees on a 14x12 National frame
The first sealed brood, which means new worker bees in ~12 days. Cells are sealed on day 9 after laying, suggesting our queen was probably already mated when she swarmed. Also note the fat larvae next to the capped cells, they’re next!
First sealed brood
I love this photo, so sharp and amazing pollen.
Pollen
Not the sharpest photo – but does include the queen, Queen Antoinette. The next one will be Boadicea, then Cleopatra and so on. Can you spot her?
The Queen, Antoinette
Photos taken by Wyc as I inspected the frames.
I can spot her but I can’t find mine.
I tried Hiving A Swarm and it didn’t work the first time, but the second time it took really well, like yours. I fed them sugar syrop 1:1 strength and they drew out 9 large frames in 3 weeks.
Good luck.
looks like you managed to catch a pic of a worker head down in a cell with wax glands charged just to the left of the pollen patch – nice one 🙂