I took the opportunity yesterday to check the Blue/Purple hive to see if they have a new, matted queen yet, and how they were doing on capping their honey supers.

I noticed they are back-filling almost the entire top brood box. This worries me, as I've read bees do this when they're queen-less, although so much stuff is in bloom right now they might be bringing it in faster than they can draw new supers.

Oh how I wish I had more already-drawn supers!!

I believe a queen was hatched within the past 5-10 days, but it's possible she's still on mating flights, or just now beginning to lay eggs.

I did see capped brood, but I think it was from the previous queen, (if I did the math correctly) and the capped brood will open in a few days.


I was hoping to see definitive evidence of a queen today, eggs, larva, etc., but as I started going through the bottom brood box, the bees got really bothered.

"It was getting to be afternoon/dinner time," I told myself, thinking they were returning from a day of foraging and not in the mood for me poking around, as opposed to they were still without queen.

I've heard my mentor say before that it usually takes a week longer than what one expects from bee biology/development charts before seeing eggs appear. I'll give them a bit longer and check again soon, earlier in the daytime.

I'm still going to deploy the "bees know best, and I'm not interfering with their replacement of the queen process" principal. 




I found the top super almost 50% capped. They're s-l-o-w to cap it right now, although I suppose they're waiting for the moisture content to be just right.

The second super was 50% drawn from it's wax foundation, and what was drawn was already filled.

The third (newer) super is still just foundation.