Thought things were going very well earlier in the spring. Two separate hives seem to be doing quite well. Then one started to decline, so I thought perhaps, in advance of the spring flow, I would combine the two of them with a newspaper in between. I checked for Queen cells. I check for eggs. I found no Queen, but saw swarm cells. A week later I found a swarm and a cavity in the side of a structure nearby. Guess I didn't get to them before they flew. But the double-decker hive seemed to be doing fine. I waited till a queen a merged. On the advice of a friend, I just left them alone to do what they needed to do. However, two weeks later, I opened them and there was no brood no eggs no Queen, no pollen, lots of nectar, but nothing else. Today I got a new Queen and squashed all the bees that I could down in to a 5 frame nuc. I hope they'll have enough resources plus what I'm feeding them to untrap the Caged Queen who's already mated, ready to lay and get busy. There's always a lesson.
As they're scouting the front of their new home you'll see they've been visited by a spider. Very interesting markings, no? Could be a black widow.
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