Weekly check

All appeared to be well so we suited up and got started on the checks. 

Harmony 4 -Where the swarm ended up being dumped yesterday.  They had already began to draw out the comb and there were signs of honey (a day).  Had a thorough check and then we saw her...  our new queen.  I called her Queen Louise after my neice.  We gently put her back and closed the lid.

She's the big shiny one.

The Nuc (soon to be Harmony 3) - took the lid off, considering there is no queen in there now, they are very active.  Bringing in plenty of pollen.  I think they must be missing having the queen because they have already begun to make a queen cell.  So in 16 days there will be another Queen.

Harmony 2 - The original Carni hive, now hosts a rather large colony.  On inspection, we found brood, stores and honey  and also eggs.  This was a bit of a suprise as we didnt expect the old queen to lay straight away.  Having looked for her several times we decided that the bees must have killed her.  Just as we were getting to the end of the inspection and to the frames with nothing much on, we saw her... another new queen.  This one will be named Queen Deedee after my other neice. 

Harmony 1 - My Buckfast babies.. These girls are a pleasure to work with, they are calm, busy and productive.  Queenie was on the next to last frame, reliable as always.  The varroa has died down, so the icing sugar has definately done the trick.  We didn't bother this week because they were all a bit stressed but next week its back to normal.  Below is a picture of them coming back to the hive loaded with pollen from the rape.