They confound me

Hives record updated.

It's clear that it will take many more seasons before I can consider myself a vaguely competent beekeeper, but with everything I learn I can feel slightly closer to that goal.

Today's long overdue inspection was in the presence of the next door neighbour of the nature reserve where I keep 3 hives, which rather drained my concentration as I gave a running commentary over the ever increasing buzz.

I had thought Hive Boudicca queenless at the last inspection, so had introduced a brood frame with a queen cell from Hive Dido. The bees had ripped down the queen cell. Fair enough - it's their home not mine. But today's observation of eggs and uncapped brood makes a mockery of my previous assessment that the colony was queenless: there's clearly a laying queen. But why then did I spot a newly created queen cell: uncapped with royal jelly and a little larvae floating on it when there's loads of space in the hive? Laying worker? Not likely with the regular egg laying pattern, single eggs per cell and the neat position of eggs at the bottom of the cells. Swarm? Surely not at this time of year when there's still so much room in that hive. Supersedure? Well, maybe that's it. I left the queen cell alone. I did not spot the queen today, not in Boudicca or the others for that matter. This colony still does not look strong, and that makes me wonder. In my defence for not having properly analysed this hive on the last inspection, the comb is very dark, and the shade on the site makes things hard to see. But that's no excuse: I need to re-site, and I need to change the comb.

The little nuc, Hive Dido, seemed well, even vigorous. There were no queen cells in the hive, so I don't know why they had produced one last time. How should I keep the nuc suppressed a little to stop the colony feeling cramped and deciding a move is in order? Do I just keep nicking brood frames and putting them into weaker hives? That does not sound ideal. However, I want to keep this colony running since the nuc has an observation roof addon with which I intend to use to demonstrate bees to others. I will need to find the queen and mark her at the next inspection.

In Hive Amidala, which has a deep brood box,  I removed a lot of wild drone brood which has formed on the bottom of the 2 regular depth frames I have in there. Only one quarter was drone brood, and the rest nectar/honey so I got in a right mess tearing it off. I eventually managed to get the comb bee-free and put the lot in a bag. It's now in my freezer to kill everything, and I'll inspect the brood and conduct a varroa count. Given the very low number on a recent varroa floor test, I am quite optimistic. However, the inspection itself left more questions since I did not see any eggs or any young unsealed larvae. The youngest I could see were intermediate sized unsealed larvae (maybe 5 days since being laid). Hopefully I just missed the eggs whilst being preoccupied with the drone brood and having had to monologue to my audience.

It's not simple, but I'm still learning.