That is excellent - a textbook emerged queen cell. It still amuses me that, when the queen nibbles the end off the cell, she doesn't remove it completely, but leaves a small 'hinge' on the lid.
Anyway, I didn't see the queen that day, and had to wait another week to see if I could spot her. Which brings me to Sunday, when I opened the hive again and, after a little bit of peering about, saw this:
Yes, that is indeed the new queen! If you didn't spot her, I promise she definitely is in the photo. She's actually the one that is less stripy than all the worker bees. So, think of it as a game of "Where's Waldo?" - except in this version, everyone is wearing a striped top except Waldo.
She's not laying yet - probably because the weather hasn't been great, so she hasn't had a chance to fully mate yet. Hopefully that will all change by the weekend, and then I'll be able to mark her and name her.
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