Honestly, I was pretty disappointed with this. It was the only new frame out of five that has been drawn at all. In hindsight, I can understand it. Because we had a lot of rain and it was their first week, it is not surprising that there was such little growth.
This is one of the original frames from our Nuc. I really like the brood pattern here -- definitely a good sign. We saw the queen again but didn't snap a picture of her. Below is a close up of some brood. Notice the pollen, larva and capped brood. In the top middle of the picture you can see what looks like an early stage swarm cell. I wouldn't bee surprised if it is an abandoned queen they were making before they got transfered to the new hive. I will keep an eye on it.
Now for hive inspection two. I immediately saw some good signs after opening the hive. Notice the outside frames in the picture below. This week they are coated in bees, whereas, last week there were no bees on them. This tells me that the bees have drawn out these frames.
Tada! This is one of the outer frames that has been almost fully drawn out. Look back at the first picture in this post. You can really see how much they have expanded, and they have moved onto other frames too. So far they have completed 8 out of the 10 frames. Soon we will have to add a second brood box, another milestone!
Bee Bonus: Look carefully in the upper part of the frame near the right side. See the queen? She has a red dot on her back.
In this photo of one of the orignal frames, you can see a good brood pattern. See how the capped brood is around the outside of the frame, rather than in the middle area like the photo from inspection 1? This tells me that the center area has hatched out. I really like the variety of pollen colors in the center. You can also see nectar glistening in the uncapped cells, as well as some capped honey in the upper left corner.
This is my brother cutting some burr comb, one of my favorite things during an inspection. We keep all the extra wax in a jar. Soon it will bee full, so we will be able to melt it down and refine it!
