A group of interested future bee keepers was introduced to the 5 hives up on the roof of GG. The experience was treated as a teaching moment and maybe we will have some long term volunteers. However we learned that the Orange hive is indeed missing its queen. The queen must have not come back from a mating flight. I assumed that while the NUC did not have eggs, that the queen was mated. That assumption was incorrect. Next time we will wait until there are eggs before moving.
The Pine hive which was the swarm catch from Officer Ed’s property also had bad news. The Queen was missing along with several worker bees. On one of the frames were a few queen cells being drawn out. So the assumption is that the queen laid a few eggs then swarmed out of the hive with half the workers. The queen may need to be anchored in place a few more days before releasing. However, this queen was in the hive laying for approximately 5 days before absconding.