2nd inspection

I was determined to get into the hive again this week to see what was going on and to make a concerted effort to get the queen marked before all the new bees emerged and the colony increased in size. After talking with Maureen and Jim last night, I was even more determined as they told tales of a couple of their newly hived swarms covering the majority of the brood frames in just a couple of weeks. Forecast for today was sunshine and showers so I was not hopeful I would get the opportunity. At about 12 the weather looked like it would hold for a couple of hours so I took my chances and popped up to the allotment to get in there. I remembered to take the queen marking cage, the marker and the icing sugar shaker along with the special bee tobacco I had been given for the smoker.

All tooled up I went in. They had brace combed up the feeder again so this needed to come off and they had fully propolised the mesh on the open hole on the crown board. I got the crown board off, not too sticky and I remembered to twist gently and lift rather than just yank it off. After checking that there was no queen on the underside, I put it to one side. Well, I have to say I was a little disappointed to see that there had been no further activity in the hive since last inspection, 8 days since. The five central frames that they had drawn out last week were still the only ones drawn. I went through each of the five frames looking for the queen and indeed any activity to signify that she was present. Nada. The majority of the brood that we observed last week has been capped, there are no eggs or young larvae present so I am guessing that she hasn't been around for a good 8 days which coincidentally was when I did my last inspection. This leads me to believe that I must have done something to her during that inspection or that she buggered off before that inspection with the majority of the colony and I didn't notice any reduction in size as it was my first look see last week. BUT there are no queens cells. If they had swarmed before last week's inspection there would have been queen cells. If I had killed the queen last week the workers should be raising one or more of the fertilised eggs as an emergency queen. It's possible I guess that she's gone off the lay as it were but surely the colony wouldn't stand for this and would supercede her. I'm flummoxed but not panicking just yet. I closed the hive back up but instead of putting the crown board on top of the brood box put on the queen excluder and framed up the super. Why I did this I have no idea. I shall have another look in a few days time to see is the situation has changed, by then some of the capped brood may well be emerging which may egg ('scuse the pun) things on a bit.

Have just twigged that I possibly should have 12 frames in my brood box rather than the 11 that are there, this obvious boo boo may explain the amount of brace comb I'm getting in the hive. This along with the upside down crown board error last week would, I guess be violating the 'bee space' rules and therefore encouraging the dears to build comb in appropriate places. My problem is that I am using second hand frames which are a mix of hoffman style and flat sided, I've got those little plastic spacers on them but I don't think the spacing is right. When I inspect again in a few day time I'll be taking my ruler to check if that is indeed the problem. In the meantime, anyone got a spare queen ;-)