I did my first full inspections of the year this weekend and observed some interesting things.

The north hive is large and feisty (so feisty, in fact, that we had a bit of a mishap a couple weeks ago that I will not recount here). This is heartening, since this is also the hive that had its top blow off before a snowstorm. I spotted a lot of eggs and brood of all stages on the fifth frame in (from the south) in their top box. It seems like they’ve got a good amount of resources. I did not replace their fondant today, but I’m considering going back to do it this week. It’s quite warm and lovely today, but I think it will get cool again and perhaps rainy soon. I’m not sure exactly under what weather conditions I should switch from fondant to 1:1 syrup to nothing at all. A question for the next bee meeting or club hive check I get to attend, hopefully soon.

The south hive’s numbers were quite small. I was there yesterday (Saturday) and did a brief inspection. It was brief because there weren’t many bees. The cluster was mainly concentrated on a few frames in the top box, and when I got to the bottom box I was dismayed to see mold on a few of the outer frames, as well as damp, moldy, dead bees along the side of the box and on the bottom. This explained the mass of dead bees I saw when I peeked behind the mouseguard on a warmish day earlier this season. All in all, I’m impressed with this colony’s will to live. Their fondant was nearly gone, so I gave them a fresh one.

One of my goals for today, in addition to doing the full hive inspection of the north hive, was to remove the bottom box on the south hive. Their small numbers don’t warrant that much space, and I don’t want them to be burdened by cleanup when the colony is so small. I removed the bottom box and carefully looked at each frame. Some of them had good resources that I wanted to leave for the colony if needed and if it made sense to swap out any empty-ish frames. I then went through the former top box, now the only box, to see if there were any frames that didn’t have any brood and not many resources, but I did find frames with honey and pollen on them, and at least one full frame of honey. Unfortunately, I did not see many eggs, though some were there, and I saw a lot of drone comb. The eggs I did see were not centered in the cells, but there was one egg per cell. I’m not sure if it’s the right time of year to be seeing drone cells, so this was a little concerning. I think if I had a laying worker I’d see more than one egg per cell, but the misalignment of the eggs in the cells has me worried. This is another question for the next opportunity I get with the knowledgeable bee folk.

Just as I was feeling a bit disappointed about the lack of bees and the lack of eggs and the number of drone cells I saw as I was putting the south hive back together, I saw her. At first I doubted myself. I haven’t confidently spotted any of my own queens in person yet. But there was a long, dark abdomen attached to a larger round thorax than I’d seen on the other bees. She was surrounded by her friends on all sides. They were climbing over her, like they were trying to ride on her back or help keep her obscured. I blew lightly on them to see if I could get them to part so I could get a better view. She did not want to be spotted. I watched her as long as I could, then carefully replaced the frame. It was the fourth frame in from the south, the spot these bees have been hanging out in for awhile. I am hoping she is in good health and able to lay well. It did bring me some degree of peace and comfort and joy to see her moving around the space, surrounded by her friends. (Of course, now that I am sitting here, looking at photos of these poorly placed eggs, I am second guessing that I spotted the queen after all. Time will tell, I suppose. This is maybe the one (1) application I’d be willing to concede Mark Z.’s pervert glasses would be useful for.)

Questions/Next Steps:

• When to switch from fondant to another type of supplementary feed, if any
• Is the drone comb/uncentered eggs in the smaller colony concerning, and if so, what to do
• How to clean/store/manage the box and frames with mold. Is freezing adequate? How do I keep the hardware from deteriorating further until it’s time to give it back to the colony for their spatial needs? I think when they do get it they will be able to clean it up, but I don’t want it to get worse in the meantime.