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My observation hive has been packed to the extreme for a month. The bees have been bearding outside and I have checked them every day at lunchtime but no swarm. Today I came home from work and there were only about a quarter of the bees in there although it was packed at lunchtime. A quick check outside to the favorite spruce tree revealed the stragglers hovering around a branch where the swarm must have been. The swarm - long gone. Well good luck to them but I wondering about the ones left. With so many bees out I can finally see what they've been up to - removing old comb and foundation and building new comb more like a natural free standing comb. Nice. There are several frames of capped brood. I cannot see any queen cells but historically they always hide them in between the two frames where I can't see them. Last week I noticed a lot of drones kicked out of the hives and I haven't seen many flying around. I can see a few in the observation hive and they even have some drone comb in one area so maybe there are still some hardy late summer drones around. Assuming the queen cells were capped yesterday or today it will still be another week before a queen can emerge. What does anyone think about the prospects of a September queen getting mated?
I hived a swarm in late August, and when I checked today they were strong with new and capped brood. My main hive had a supercedure queen that likely emerged a week and a half ago, so I'll be checking in on her to see how things are going. Fingers crossed for more great weather!
I saw plenty of drones running around my hives today. While most of my hives had stopped drone production, I caught the drone frame in one half hatched out. In short, I would expect some hives to still have drones for a little white yet. The weather might be more of an issue, though if this lack of rain continues, your future virgin queen would probably have good flying weather.
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