I thought I would post this for the folks that are not regularly looking in bee hives. I caught a swarm at my house (I actually think I caught a swarm from my one hive I have at my house). I moved them to the farm on Saturday, May 6. I was using a swarm box that catches the bees when they leave the regular hive and they start a new hive. Normally, there will be brood in the swarm box if you have let them get started. Anyway, I was very surprised that I had lots of honey and drawn comb, but no brood. So, I moved a couple of frames of brood hoping they would make a new queen. This normally takes a little while. So, I opened the box to check on progress last Saturday (May 13) and to my pleasant surprise I had 9 frames of brood. Apparently there was a queen in there and she had just not started laying eggs yet.
The brighter white around the top edge is capped honey. The tan colored stuff is capped brood getting ready to emerge. I moved another swarm almost three weeks ago now and they only have four frames of brood so far.
Fur: that is the 3rd frame. They have drawn 7 out of 10 frames out in the past 8 days. Pretty sure this is last year's Frost queen that swarmed into a swarm box. Middle frames were solid brood except for the very edges. Looking forward to seeing what this hive will do by October.
