Queen Out for a Sunday Jaunt

Needed to check on the OV hive today to see if they were getting ready for another box. Actually, they are not ready but are doing very well. The bees have removed the queen cups that were at the bottom of the frame and I easily spotted the queen along with eggs, larvae and pupae. But the replacement frames that were put in when I pulled some for the split are not yet drawn out, and there is plenty of room for food and brood elsewhere, so I simply closed up the hive.

As I was right next door, I did a quick check to see if I could find any eggs in the Sasha hive, even though I'm not expecting any before tomorrow... but you never know!

There's not much to inspect as the one frame of food is heavy with pollen and the other two frames that were brood are now hatched and mostly covered with bees. No further wax moth larvae have been found, so I'm pleased about that. The queen's cell remains intact (except for the end where she chewed her way out.) There is no trace of the queen cell that was on the right-hand side of the frame.

While doing my inspection, I happened to look down to see the queen on the edge of the box! She sat there for a few moments then crawled down between the frames. At that cue, I put the feeder back on, surrounded by a short box, and then the inner cover. It was then that I looked towards the hive entrance and spotted her walking back out.

I was treated to a rare (at least for me... ) experience of witnessing the queen's orientation flight. She'd crawl around a bit and then fly up and down, and side to side before taking a rest as pictured here on the inner cover. She even flew up to check me out a couple of times.

It was an incredible experience!