Queens !

Double hive inspection today. Again the weather was not too kind, and the inspection was accompanied by intermittent sun and cloud.

In hive1 the honey super comb was again slight more drawn out that I'd seen it previously, and in fact the centre couple of frames had uncapped honey, though only in the middle of each. The comb on the outer frames is still only somewhat drawn out. Things down below in the brood super and brood box looked healthy. Again I saw brood of all sorts, and many eggs too. Most exciting of all I saw the queen in the brood super. She's a big one - much longer and larger than the ones I'd seen previously in other hives. As I turned away to get the queen cage to try to mark her I lost sight of her on the frame. I looked and looked, only to look down and see her disappearing into the main brood box below. I resigned myself to returning to the inspection, but when going through the brood box I caught up with her again, this time caging her and giving her a blog of green paint on the back of the head. It's not the neatest, since I found that other bees kept mobbing her and getting in the way, but mark her I did.

Hive2 (the new hive) still has just a single brood box with 11 frames. Three of the frames were still really just foundation, with no worked out comb. Most of the frames were well worked out though. Again I saw he full range of eggs, uncapped and capped larvae, pollen and honey. And my luck was certainly in today: I saw the queen too. She's about the same size as the one in hive1, with a bright white spot on the head. I think I remember Fabiola saying she is an '09 queen so strictly she should have a green dot, but to be honest I'm pretty glad it's white since I find the white much easier to see. So, hive2 looks in good shape, though the colony is small. I'd be very surprised to get any honey out of it this year. My main hope is it just stays healthy through autumn, winter and spring.

Quite what the fate of this second hive will be I am not sure. I took the opportunity to move it a meter or so, further away from the path and so to make it less intrusive for people visiting the site. I have a final location in mind (next to a wall) which is another 1 or perhaps 2 short moves away. After I moved it I noticed the returning foragers buzzing around the old location, but they seemed to be finding their way back to the landing board eventually. I had initially tried a slightly larger move but noticed that no bees were going back into the hive so settled for a less ambitious attempt. Fingers crossed that I might be able to persuade the site manager to keep the 2 hives on site. I'd had absolutely no luck trying to find alternative sites, and am concerned that even if I do I'll be unable to move the hives a short distance since the bees will keep returning to the old site and die.

Anyhow - a VERY exciting day to have seem both queens for the first time and also to have marked the one in hive1. Not so good on the honey front, but that's no issue for me since they look pretty healthy.