Ste and I conducted our first inspection of the office beehives this morning. Although it was overcast, it was baking hot and we both nearly melted in our beesuits. But the inspection was successful and we were able to confirm that our new colonies seem to have settled in very well.
We found the queen in both colonies – not difficult because they are clearly marked with a red dot on the back of their head. Queens are marked with a colour according to the year they are born. Queens born in years ending 3 or 8 are marked with a red dot.
We checked that the queen is laying eggs OK, which they are in both colonies. We saw eggs, hatched larvae and also “sealed brood”. This is where the larvae are sealed into their honeycomb cell with a wax cap by the worker bees. During their time as sealed brood they pupate into an adult bee. When ready to emerge as an adult (after 12 days), they nibble their way out through the cap.
So that was all good news. In addition both colonies have at least two frames full of honey which means they are finding plenty of nectar to collect to enable them to feed and grow the colony. No, it doesn’t mean we’ll have any honey for sale yet!
We’ll be performing another inspection in about a week.
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