And so yesterday we could stand it no longer and made our first inspection of our hive. We had adopted the swarm on 16 May so this was just over 2 weeks. Having been advised what to look for we were very proud of our girls. All seems to look good.
Check 1 - is there enough food? The bees had stored honey all round the outside of the brood combs.
Check 2 - are they queen right? We couldn't see the queen, or eggs. But the bees are very organised and we saw lots of larvae and covered worker cells. This bodes well for having a good queen.
Check 3 - are they going to swarm? We don't yet have any queen cells or any drone cells. Apparently this means they are unlikely to swarm from here.
Check 4 - so they have sufficient room? They are still pretty crowded in the brood chamber but have plenty of space in their super. So plenty of room.
It was really helpful to have this checklist because otherwise we were just looking at our beautiful girls and enjoying their company. This gave us the opportunity to be more explicit and confident in our check.
So after 2 weeks, all is going well. We have a wonderful colony and are very proud of our girls.
The only disappointment was that we didn't see our queen on Jubilee weekend!
Check 1 - is there enough food? The bees had stored honey all round the outside of the brood combs.
Check 2 - are they queen right? We couldn't see the queen, or eggs. But the bees are very organised and we saw lots of larvae and covered worker cells. This bodes well for having a good queen.
Check 3 - are they going to swarm? We don't yet have any queen cells or any drone cells. Apparently this means they are unlikely to swarm from here.
Check 4 - so they have sufficient room? They are still pretty crowded in the brood chamber but have plenty of space in their super. So plenty of room.
It was really helpful to have this checklist because otherwise we were just looking at our beautiful girls and enjoying their company. This gave us the opportunity to be more explicit and confident in our check.
So after 2 weeks, all is going well. We have a wonderful colony and are very proud of our girls.
The only disappointment was that we didn't see our queen on Jubilee weekend!
