It’s been a week since we last disturbed the bees. Although, we lit the smoker we did not smoke the bees, because we were going to use a fine spray mist of water. However, we kept the smoker close at hand.
We opened the hive at 19.00 the bees were calm. The syrup was almost gone and the bees are starting to draw the frames in the super.
End brood frames are being drawn out now. There is a good supply of food being built upon the frames. The queen was on one of the middle frames and there is a lot of uncapped larvae. Despite using an LED touch we could see no eggs. There is a good pattern of brood with capped drone cells on the outer edge of the frames.
We have a metal queen excluder which does not have a wooden frame to provide the bee space. We need to make one.
Next time we will open the hive earlier and with decent light hopefully be able to see eggs. We have been looking in the centre of the frame where there are empty cells as consider this the most likely place the queen will lay in.
The hive appears to be in good order and the bees are building their supplies for the coming winter.