Hive Inspection

Yesterday's swarm flew off before someone could come and capture it, apparently taking a swing about the neighbour's yard and 'heading East.'

Today we went into the hive to do a full inspection, and get an idea of how the colony was responding to losing part of its population.  We went through all of the bars in a thorough examination, and found five empty queen cells in total, meaning (we hope) that the battle is over, things should be settling down, and the new queen will take control of the colony. After having her mating flight, she should get down to the work of re-populating the hive.  The girls (and boys) were calm and busy in all parts of the hive, and laying in some nectar in the brood nest.

There is capped honey and pollen present, though not in large amounts.  We'll do an inspection in a week and, with good luck, we should start to see eggs being laid. It could take two weeks before we see much happening to indicate the presence of a laying queen, so we may need to be patient.