Seven days ago I put two frames in the hive that originated from Doug Shaw's strongest hive. One was a super, one was a brood frame. I was pretty sure one of them had eggs or very young larvae. We went back in today, based on Rob Jacobs' advice to see if queen cells had been started. We found one on each frame.
The photos that follow are from the super frame. The queen cell is on the bottom of the frame, just like a swarm cell would be. I'm not sure exactly how the egg or larva got into that position, but the bees seem to like it there. There was one bee that seemed to be especially engaged with the cell. It took a little patience to wait until this nurse bee was through to get the shot of the open cell. This is good news!
The second frame, the brood frame also had a queen cell. This cell was more in the spot you would expect of an emergency or supersedure queen cell. I wasn't quite as impressed with nurse bees, but then caring for the queen cell may be sporadic or I may just have not seen it, I didn't want to be in the hive all that long.
The bees seemed very happy. There was plenty of pollen and honey. I am not feeding because they are close to a nectar and pollen source and there is no need for them to draw new comb.
I have two possible queen cells! May the best one win!
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