Modified Top bar Hive open for business

Finished the modified top bar hive today and placed the swarm from Nuc 1 into it. The girls seem to like the additional space and took right to it. We also believe we have found the new queen in Bravo, which was the hive that swarmed 3 times and gave us Nuc1 and Nuc 2.

We will be moving Nuc 2 into an expanded box hopefully tomorrow, giving them additional space as well. The top bar is large enough to accomodate two complete colonies if we decide to. We also found a queen cell unhatched in Bravo and are a little concerned about it, not knowing if this is an indicator of yet another swarm, hard to believe as the new queen has already mated and is laying brood. Have half a mind to remove said queen cell and place with some nurse bees in a separate queen chamber, if nothing else it would be an emergency queen for any mishaps in the future. Will wait and put some thought into it tonight.


Enjoy the photos!