First inspection

It's been ten days since I hive the nuc so today I had my first  inspection.  A friend, Christine, also a beekeeper came and help. My wife, Gina, took the photos.

Since yesterday's excitement with the robber bees I wasn't sure what we shall find.  After the normal smoke treatment I opened the crown board. The bees were calm and going about their business. 

Last Saturday I put six new frames down. The first four frames of new foundations remained undrawn though some bees were milling around.  The fifth frames shows sign of building activities. There was even some capped honey stores. The sixth frames had definitely been worked on.  We were watching out for the queen all the time. Once we got to the nuc frames it is obvious that a lot of work has been going on. It felt much heavier then when I picked them up last weekend. Some frames were very heavy with honey and pollen. We saw a few grabs and even a new bee emerging from a cell. Because of my eye ( I saw stung on my cheek on Sunday and by now my left eye lips had closed up) I couldn't see properly to search for signs of new eggs.

On the eight frames Christine spotted the Queen bee (click on the photo to get a better view). There she was  dotted in green.  She was just busy moving around, we assumed, searching for cells to lay her eggs in. It was surprising how fast she actually moves. One minute she is on one side the frame the next minute she disappeared and reappeared on the other side.

To finished off I placed frame one, which is new, at the other end of the hive so that the bees can work on it and give the hive a more even development. We closed up and sat down for a cup of tea.