2nd Full Hive Inspection

Steve, Sarah and Gil met up on Sunday evening to perform our second full inspection. Of course there was only Hive 1 inhabited - but we knew that they were building fast. And we wanted to keep them from building comb down from the gaps.

Sure enough - the comb on the left is brand new - built in just a few days.  You can see how pure white the new wax is

Here is Sarah - examining the far side of the comb - affixed to the "follower board" - which is not good - but having learned our lesson, we left it there.

This comb is pretty clear of bees - you can get a good view of the structure of the cells.

 Here we think we have found a "Queen Cup" - can you see the "peanut shell" like object - halfway down the right hand side of the "downward gap" in the comb ?

 We still haven't managed to spot a Queen.  However I did take a lot of photographs during the inspection, and after a lot of staring at blurry bees - this is my best guess . . .   The Queen's 'retinue' generally form a ring around her pointing inwards - Can you see what looks like a much larger black furless backplate on the central (not top) bee ?  Can you also see how it's possible she might have her bottom down a cell - ie. laying an egg ??   If you're still looking - I think her eyes are pointing to the top of the photo, and her tail is pointing to the bottom left corner . .

Well maybee . . .