Sunday afternoon turned out to be absolutely perfect for checking on bees and that is just what I did. I began with the hive that I had previously found a queen in. I figured this would give me the opportunity and practice in spotting eggs and larae in various stages and sizes. I was right! You can see the larvae in the photo below.
I also found the queen again so all seems to be well in this hive. They had drawn out the comb cells in all but the outer frames. I think those eggs will begin hatching in the next week or two. The syrup in this hive was pretty much all gone as was the pollen patty I had provided. As I finished up, I decided to make more room for them so that when these little ones do hatch, they won't feel crowded. I did this by putting on the second hive body (doubled their hive, really). I then filled the syrup.
On to hive #2... After just a couple frames, I began finding lots and lots of eggs of all sizes! This should mean that there is a queen...though it could be a laying worker. If it is a laying worker, all the eggs will develop into drones...which do no work in the hive. From what I have read and heard, a laying worker will deposit multiple eggs in cells and the eggs will not be positioned in center. It looked to my untrained eye that there was only 1 egg in the center of each cell. Even so, I really wanted to find the queen to put my mind at ease. I went through the entire hive and couldn't find her...and then worked my way backwards through the hive all over again...still no queen! She must be well-camoflaged or really good at hiding...or maybe she isn't there at all. I added a second hive body to this one as well and refilled its syrup.
I forgot to mention, when I removed the hive-top feeder from this hive, there was a bunch of extra "burr comb" built between the feeder bottom and the tops of the frames.
I had to scrape all this off...from both the feeder and the frames. I felt bad about destroying all that comb they had worked on building...but really, there was plenty of frame space they should have been working on! Silly bees!
Below is a picture of one of the frames. You can see the white honey cells toward the top. I think the darker colored capped cells is capped brood.
I am hoping that I can get a beekeeper friend to go through the hive with me sometime...to help identify some of these features as well perhaps help me in finding that elusive queen. Perhaps tonight...as it is supposed to be quite nice!
Finally, here is what the hives look like now that they are two-high.
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