That’s about it.  We do have some signs of laying in a number of the hives.  My main one is strong and doing well.  My second is docile, but no sign of laying at all.  Of the others, many now have larvae like in the above, apologies for the blurriness of the photo, shot.  In some frames in the older hives of Simon’s, we couldn’t see anything, but James put a stick into a cell, and when he drew it out there was clearly an egg on the end of it.  And others there had mainly come because their hives were the same, and they were looking for advice.  All of us being in the same boat at least let us relax a bit – it’s less likely our bees are having trouble if so many of them are reacting to the weather this way.

Hopefully James’ test with a stick holds true for other hives, and laying has started there too, which would help explain the docility of the bees.  We just don’t have good enough eyes to see it yet.

Of the wooden hives of Geoff’s that we saw worker laid Drones in last week…  The frame we put in of proper eggs doesn’t seen to have been touched, so they’re not trying to make a new queen.  And another hive now seems to be suffering the same issue.  We’ll need to keep an eye on them.

I won’t be around next week, but will hopefully be able to check in again the week after.