More bee activity video

Supersedure

Popped open the new hive yesterday (July 14) and saw 5 supersedure cells. Couldn't find the queen, but there is a lot of capped brood, pollen, nectar and capped honey in the brood box. All but half a frame are fully drawn into comb, and they're starting to draw comb in the upper hive body. The supersedure cells each had an uncapped larva in place so it will be a bit before their royal highnesses hatch and fight to the death.

The old have still had a couple of queen cells but they were empty. My eyes are too poor to see eggs in the cells, but I think it would be too soon for the replacement queen to be laying now anyway.

My smoker went out when I had the hive apart. OK. That never works out well. Got the hive back together with only one sting so all is well again. Two supers full of capped honey, but no comb being drawn in the top two supers.

Swarm in a tree

So...here are half of my Buckfast bees and their runaway queen in a box elder tree. Bon voyage.

Indpendence Day Swarm

Walked out to the garage at 10:30 this morning and the air was full of bees. I looked at my Buckfast hive and saw bees just boiling out of the entrance, running up the hive bodies, and taking to the air. About half hour later they settled into the high branches of a box elder tree. By noon they were gone, and I didn't have a chance to capture and rehive them. I checked the hive and saw queen cells (see photo) so I'm hoping they'll recover and continue to be as productive as they had been. I took the opportunity to remove the entrance reducer as the hive is still packed with bees and capped brood. Obviously, they can defend a wider opening.

The slow buildup of the Italian hive continues. They have 7 frames fully drawn, lots of capped brood, pollen and nectar, so I added a second hive body and removed the feeder.