I checked hive 1 (Italians hived a month ago) and the queen is a laying machine. Most of the empty frames (foundationless) were drawn and laid in. The last frame was around 1/4 drawn and each cell had an egg.
There was about 20% drone cells. I pulled two frames up to the next deep and replaced with empty frames, a frames of brood separating them.
After closing them up, I couldn't resist taking a peek into hive 2 (Buckfast hived last week). I found no eggs and no work being done to the hive. They're bring in pollen and nectar, that's about it. I scanned a couple more frames without seeing the queen.
I grabbed a partial drawn frame out, went back into hive 1 and swapped out the 1/4 drawn frame. I put the 1/4 drawn frame next to a frame of pollen and closed it up. I'll check back in 5-7 days to look for queen cells.
If there are none, I'll assume that either the queen is taking her time or I was sent a virgin queen. If that's the case, I'll add a frame of capped brood a week later.
If there are queen cells, I'll add a frame of brood and get things ready to bank a few queens.
Topic: Hive Check (Read 1073 times)