Hot stuff

Another visit today - just to check on them and make sure they are okay and not about to swarm. And, to my untutored eyes, they look okay. The weather in the last week has been changeable to say the least. On a couple of days we have had heavy rain and on others good temperatures. Then on Saturday and Sunday (today) the temperature was in the high 20s. Heaven knows that that is doing to pollen production.

Anyhoo, I checked a few of the frames in the main brood chamber and most of those in the one above the queen excluder. I did see a couple of small queen cells that had been created but none were highly polished inside and all were empty. They do tend to turn up as the bees go about their daily business so I might take a chance and not do those anti-swarm methods as they seem pretty happy at the moment.

I did have a bit of a look around and I saw eggs that had been newly laid. So the queen is still there and laying pretty heavily. There are loads of bees about to emerge. It's such a strong colony. Though on one corner I did see the start of a lump of propolis again. Not sure why that is turning up. These bees have always been keen propolisers but I need to keep an eye on that as the queen avoids the areas where it is thickest. To be honest I'm not sure what it is. I'll try to take a snap and add it to this for future reference.