So how's things?

I only just had time for the quickest of peeks into the hives today.. we are packing for a holiday...or at least I will be once I stop panicking!  So a quick look was all I had time for...
Hive A - is looking good

The bees are comfortably covering nearly 7 of the 11 frames in the brood box and are drawing out the wax into lovely cells.  What is even more encouraging is that there are grubs and new eggs in the cells in the centre of the frames - suggesting the queen has been back round again and has re-laid in cells where new bees have already hatched.  Look at all these busy house bees - packing the cells with pollen and nectar to feed the grubs...

All the pollen coming in got me thinking.  When I look at the stores from the un-drawn side of the frame there are lots of different colours of pollen packed in there.  Different kinds of flowers definitely smell different - so does different kinds of pollen taste different? - logic surely states they should - but who would know and how would you describe it?? 

I hope they like the bright orange pollen - there's more coming in - just in time for tea....

So - everything looks fine and dandy in hive A.

Then onto hive B, this is the small swarm I collected from the main road last Friday - so this was my first look into the hive to see how they were getting on.  In truth I'd have been thrilled to see them still there and showing signs of making themselves comfortable by getting some wax strings going...

Looking good so far...

And then the surprise - Hive B has eggs and grubs in !!

The queen must have either been mated when we found the swarm or she took full advantage of the sweltering weather we've been basking in last week.  Now - look again - slightly off centre - bottom left a bit..... could that be her?
On closer inspection I decided no.  The eyes were too big - far too like a pair of Will.i.am's sunglasses so I'm certain its a drone but what a handsome chap!

 

So now I feel I really have to look after this hive and nurse it carefully so that the colony can continue.  As the weather forecast for the jubilee weekend is heavy rain and its not much better into next week I decided to feed them.  They've got a whole litre of sugar syrup to give them a boost - hopefully if they are well fed and can't fly because of the rain they will spend the time carefully building wax cells for more eggs to be laid in!
Fingers crossed!