What News from Hive #2?

I know that the queen cell in hive #2 should have hatched around the middle of this week - so I decided to pop down to the apiary today and see if I could see the new queen.

It was fairly overcast as I took off the roof, crown board and queen-excluder.  And then, just as I was separating the frames... it started raining.  So I quickly had to put the hive back together and wait it out.  Fortunately, it was only a brief shower, so 10 minutes later I was able to open up again.

I don't like having to put a hive back together in a rush - it's very difficult to avoid crushing some of the bees between the hive components.  As I took off the roof and crown board I could see that I'd accidentally squashed 5 bees in my haste to rain-proof the hive.  I really try hard not to harm any of my bees, so this made me a little sad.  However, I had to get on with the job in hand, as there was no way of knowing when the next rain shower would arrive.

I separated the frames and lifted out the frame bearing the one (very large) queen cell.  I looked at the end, and was immediately concerned - the end of the cell was still in place.  I know that this queen cell is more than 16 days old, and queens don't emerge late.  Had something gone wrong?  Had she died during metamorphosis?  Maybe a varroa mite had sneaked in just before the cell was capped?

I turned the frame to get a better look, and what I saw next was alarming - there was a large hole in the side of the queen cell, and I could see that the workers were chewing away at the edges, so that they could dismantle the cell.  So, perhaps she had died - and they had chewed a hole in the side of the cell so they could remove her from the hive?

While still holding the frame, I started thinking about what I needed to do next.  Do I put in another frame of eggs, wait 16 days and hope for 3rd time lucky?  Do I try to combine with the colony from the nucleus, and hope they accept the queen from that colony?  Do I accept that these bees just can't raise a queen, give up on this hive, and start again in the spring?

And then... I saw her!  A lovely new queen, with a long, striped abdomen and big ginger legs, awkwardly making her way across the comb to meet-and-greet her new subjects.  I cannot tell you how relieved I am to see that the succession has finally been secured!

I closed up the hive, and promised myself that I will leave her alone to get on with the important job of "entertaining" the local drones...  I'll check on her again at the end of the month, to see if she has started laying.