Mrs FG and I just completed this week's inspection together.
There are twice as many bees as when we first got this colony as a nuc; there are loads of larvae and eggs (yes, we can both see eggs properly now!). There are some stores along the top of most frames, but not loads. There is all sorts of different pollen colours.
We didn't see the queen. We found it very difficult to get the light right (in a woody glade with sometimes sun, sometimes shade as the wind blew).
Worst of all - we both went totally into "Ooooh, look at that!" mode and neither of us really recorded anything.
I did note some capped drone cells and no real play cups (a few raised cells with larvae in them, but I'm pretty sure these were worker cells converted to drone cells).
They've started using one of the half foundation frames
growing the comb down - beautiful white new stuff.
I'm going to add another box soon, underneath the current one, with empty frames and just starter strips; hopefully they'll build some nice new comb, and move the brood nest down into it. This will leave the top box for honey storage.
FG
There are twice as many bees as when we first got this colony as a nuc; there are loads of larvae and eggs (yes, we can both see eggs properly now!). There are some stores along the top of most frames, but not loads. There is all sorts of different pollen colours.
We didn't see the queen. We found it very difficult to get the light right (in a woody glade with sometimes sun, sometimes shade as the wind blew).
Worst of all - we both went totally into "Ooooh, look at that!" mode and neither of us really recorded anything.
I did note some capped drone cells and no real play cups (a few raised cells with larvae in them, but I'm pretty sure these were worker cells converted to drone cells).
They've started using one of the half foundation frames
growing the comb down - beautiful white new stuff.I'm going to add another box soon, underneath the current one, with empty frames and just starter strips; hopefully they'll build some nice new comb, and move the brood nest down into it. This will leave the top box for honey storage.
FG
