This mugging weather is playing havoc, not just the bees but all the work that needs doing on the site aswell, so just taking the opportunity when we can, the bees seem to enjoy leading us a merry dance.
Many mistakes so here goes.
Lost 1 queen I presume to swarm, a failed attempt at Demaree although bees seemed determined to go.
The swarm we collected is doing nicely and the queen is laying.
The 2 virgins that were in the same box, put the smaller one in a Nuc which was laying and what I thought was the better bigger one in Brood box, with frames from Demarree. That Queen wasn't laying and I found what looked like to me a supcedure cell, out of what I don't know, so made the decision to unite with other Queen and dispose of that one, so used a spare Brood Box and they seem happy enough with it at the minute, the Queen seems happy and laying nicely.
Went into another hive and found a lot of charged Queen Cells, but no Queen. The cells were all over the place similar to when I accidentally killed a Queen, so I think something happened to her rather than swarmed, doesn't seem to be any bees gone, left 1 charged cell intact. She was the best Queen so decided to replace Queen Cell I put in Nuc from other hive with one from her, luckily as it turned out as the other Queen Cell was just brown sludge when I squashed it.
Wouldn't be at all surprised to see cells in the other one if weather lets us inspect over the next week.
Lots of bees with white markings as there is a fair bit of Himilayan Balsam kicking about around us.
They are certainly keeping us on our toes and fair to say they're winning at the minute, but we are learning a lot aswell. I have noticed from the posts that its probably not been a great year to jump in at the deep end, but what the hell.