May 20 inspection. Lots of pictures.

Click pictures for larger versions.

It's been a while since my last post. This one documents an inspection of both hives. Please look over my shoulder and tell me if you see anything that I'm missing. Thanks.

Here's the "Alpha" hive from the top. I'll be pulling the frames from back to front.
D4 - Drone foundation.
11 - Full sheets of small cell.
4
10
9
8
13
7
D3 - Drone again.
Division Feeder. (A device to drown bees.)


D4 was untouched so I didn't bother taking a picture. This is 11. Not much action. Now that I think of it I should have shuffled it into the middle of the cluster. Next time.










Here's 4. Back on May 5 I borrowed it from the other hive. It had a lot of capped brood and this hive needed a jump.

It bothers me a bit that I don't see any larvae in the cells.







The other side of 4. A bit more capped brood here, but not really great.

It is on the outer fringe of the cluster though.









Frame 10. Still nothing to brag about. Sure wish the camera caught some uncapped brood.

Maybe it did but I don't know how to look.








>
The other side of 10. Ho Hum. At least I don't see any Varroa yet. Do you?












Frame 9.
As you can see the amount of progress increases as we move through the hive.

Still can't say for sure that I'm seeing any brood. Those few capped cells could be drone brood in worker cells. That would be bad news.






The other side of 9. Wimpy wimpy.

Worry level goes up a notch.











Frame 8.
We are well into the heart of the brood cluster area. I really think this should look better.










Flip side of 8. Sure wish it looked better.

Let's move on to 13.











Frame 13. Same story.

I think that I should be seeing sheets of sealed brood by now.










Flip side of 13.












Frame 7.
This is where they started building when the package was first hived.

I think I'm seeing a lot of capped drone cells here. They look domed.








D3.

The last frame and the other drone magnet. It's a bad angle, but they sure are busy.









Flip side of the last drone cell frame.

Am I paranoid or is this hive queenless?

Here we go to the other hive, which is doing much better.








Here comes "Bravo". I didn't get a picture of the frame tops. (Nuts). Here's the order from back to front again.
D2 - Drone
14 - Small cell. Full sheet.
5 - Ditto.
18S - Small cell strip. Added May 3.
3 - Full sheet.
2 - Ditto.
23N - Frame w/ no foundation. Just the wedge strip turned down. May 3 also.
1 - Full sheet.
6 - Ditto.
D1 - Drone again.

Drone cell frame. Nothing doing. Let's cut that burr off.












Frame 14. This is more like it.

Like the other hive, this one started building at the other end. This frame is in the suburbs.








The other side of 14. Still can't say for sure that I see larvae in the open cells. The sheets of sealed area sure look nice.











18S. This was a quarter height strip a couple of weeks ago. Quite a bit of progress. They did use the opportunity to build some drone cells.










The flip side of 18s. Now I see larvae.













Frame 3. Lots of nice small cells capped and not domed.












3 reversed.

Can't tell if the blur is from glare or smoke.










Frame 2. Going great guns.













Frame 2 turned over. Very nice.













23n. Foundationless and looking as good as, or better than, the starter strip. Still more drone cells than I'd like to see downtown.










Flip side of the frame that they built from scratch. It's hard to see anything with all the bees in the way.

I sure like what they've done though!








Frame #1. This is where the building started, right in the top left corner.

I'm seeing a lot of brood, capped and not. It's a happy happy picture.








Nice to see a family working together. Flip side of 1.











To tell the truth, I got lost here somewhere. There seems to be one more frame than I have made notes for. It's hard to scroll about as I compose the page.

Oh well. Whichever this is it looks pretty fine.









The flip side of frame whatever.












Drone comb being used for stores. The best laid plans....






No drones on the other side either. Just honey.












Angie took the burr comb home to show the kids. It is kind of pretty. I was going to just drop it into the hive and let the girls work out what to do about it.









Here's me working the hives. The chair saves my poor old back. No protective clothing but I'm wearing my lucky socks. I haven't been stung since hiving the first package last month.

So there you have it. Quite a long post.
What do you think? I'd love to know. Thanks!