Today, I'm inside because it's raining (thank goodnees, we really need it!) but yesterday I checked on all my hives.
In my second Snelgrove split I have two frames with queen cells (a onesie and one-and-a-quarter-sie). I decided to leave both in the split rather move one to a queen castle since the second queen cell on the one with two doesn't look too viable, so essentially I only have two cells in there. I really expected more, so I must have misjudged the egg/larvae ages on what I thought were good candidate frames. Or they have already made and torn down a lot more. There was some evidence of that possibility. Anyway I'm leavin' it up to the bees. I also checked all the boxes below the Snelgrove for any signs of swarm cells, and saw nothing.
Late last winter I asked for help to learn the technique of just tipping the ends of the boxe up for swarm-cell checks. And I got several helpful replies. It was on my to-do skill list for this summer and I'm happy to say that armed with the comments I got here I tackled it and now do it all the time. So much easier than pulling frames. And contrary to my anxieties, I haven't had any slip-offs. Many thanks to BS for this!
Afterward that I checked the progress of split from last year, and added a deep with some moved-up brood to get them drawing it out as I am on a draw-the-deep kick this year.
Then I checked on a hive that superceded and happily found a huge, fat, new queen in possession. And she's been laying up a storm for at least four or five days judging from the brood stages. Buttercup (the parent queen of this hive) is separated and awaiting her new digs. She is only doing so-so. But at least she's still hanging in, for now.
I admired my first Snelgrove split from the outside, but didn't bother it since I expect to poke around in it for queenrightness on Wednesday, the 24th day. The two bonus splits from this hive that are in the queen castle are really rockin' so I'm hoping there's a good new queen above the board, for me to keep. I'll know on Wednesday - it's like waiting for Christmas, when you're five!
I looked at my friend's hive that I am babysitting for the summer and they seem to have settled down nicely after their move to my yard.
Commercial beeks with hundreds of hives will laugh at my exertions over such a paltry few hives. But it's a big deal to me to feel llke I know what I need to do, can get it done, deal with the unexpecteds that always arise and feel, at the end of a days' work, that my colonies are all in good order and progressing well. I haven't forgotten the bewildered and frustrated sense of panic that marked my first summer.
Enj.