So it's the first time I've been able to get in to the hives since the last post.
I've been concerned that the East hive, the one with the full honey super, has been queenless. And sure enough, it is although the ladies were quite calm.
When I was out earlier today, everything looked quiet and I was afraid that both of them could be queenless. But, as we know, you cannot judge a hive from the outside. I
I opened the east and found they were indeed queenless. The west hive, in the intervening hour from when I was first out here, had had a brood burst or a recent brood burst because you can see from the picture, there were an enormous number of bees taking orientation flights.
I took two frames, both relatively covered with capped brood, and a few open cells which I believe had eggs in them. I shook them off and transferred them to the east hive.
I hope that that will keep them strong enough until I can do two things.
1. I have to take the honey super off and extract it.
2. I have to find Queen.
I noticed that the frame of brood that I took had a lot of cap drone cells on it. Many of these were ripped open as I moved the frames from one hive to another.
So it goes. Both of the hives had relatively quiet temperaments so I believe that once I requeen the east hive, we will be cooking with gas.
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