It was a lovely warm sunny day and bee traffic was moderate. There was still only about three frames worth of bees, but frame #4 had brood on both sides, a lot more that we had seen at the last inspection. I saw larve at all different stages/sizes of development, and cells with what I was sure were freshly laid eggs. I spent a while looking but couldn't find any bee that I really thought was the queen. I also looked for capped brood but I'm not sure what capped brood looks like. There were a number of capped cells that were very orange so I thought they must be stored pollen, and 2 areas I felt sure were capped honey. I didn't see any bees emerging from cells head first. It didnt seem like the overall population was up much from the last inspection, but the amount of brood observed makes me confident that numbers are growing.
Some sad news:
The cage with the NZ queen on top of the excluder had no survivors.
I am wondering if since the hive is relatively empty, maybe the bees didnt want to go through the excluder? I dont know why they didnt feed her, but when I lifted off the lid there were no bees anywhere near the queen cage. :(
Since Sunday there has been a mix of sun and rain. Weather Network says the week ahead will be rainy.
Too bad about the NZ queen... I am glad the elder queen survived, tho! Happy May Day (and cinco de mayo and now mother's day!) to y'all and all the workers!
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