On Friday, May 28, I pulled the empty queen cage from the Italian hive and was impressed that the ladies had drawn two whole frames of bright white comb. It was easy to see that the Italian queen was busily laying eggs. Today, June 7, I checked both hives. The Italians had drawn more comb, were storing nectar and pollen in one side of a frame, and the other side was full of capped brood and developing larvae. I also saw the blue marked queen as she ran across the comb. I hope they build up quickly as I lost quite a few in the transport issue (hole in the cage), the fact that many of them managed to drown themselves in the feeder, and my carelessness in squashing some of them by not noticing the big piece of comb that filled the missing frame space where the queen cage was.
The Buckfast hive is amazing. Lots of newly hatched bees, comb fully drawn where I cut out the old moldy comb, and the upper hive body chock full of capped honey. I put on the honey supers and queen excluder and have high hopes that they will take full advantage of the basswood honey flow in late June.
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