A quick update on the bees. We did our first inspection yesterday. The bees look good, and saw two of the three queens. The Langstroth boxes didn’t seem so full as to warrant a second box, and the top bar hive was amazing. Here are some pictures.

The queen of our first Russian hive on Apr 26, 2015. The green dot means she is a 2014 queen (from the Fall, according to our supplier). This was the first time we’d seen the queen on our frames, so was very exciting.

Our first comb from our top bar hive on Apr 26, 2015. From a piece of wood with a thin wooden bar as a guide, the bees built this comb with no foundation. Pure, natural wax comb straight from the bees. There were three combs built out, as lovely as this one. The indent at the bottom is likely to leave an easy path to the boardman feeder full of sugar syrup at the front of the hive.
Then we reached the fourth bar in and could see a small area of comb they were working on. The next three bars had complete comb hanging down. To think that the bees had made this in just one week. Amazing! I took some pictures of the front comb, one of which is shown here.
After closing up the hives and putting everything away, we shared the pictures with my lovely wife and oldest daughter (who was visiting). Some great pictures of us and the bees. I zoomed in on the top bar hive frame to look more closely at the bees, and to my surprise found the queen. I created a cutout from the prior picture so you too can see her.

The queen! (Apr 26, 2015). After we closed up the hives I zoomed in on this picture and happened to spot the queen at the base of the comb. You can just make out the blue dot on her back, indicating she’s a 2015 queen.
Go Bees!
Our title is an old English idiom that traces back to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century. Busy as a bee, of course, means you are very busy. Given how active our bees have been despite the cool weather this week, it seemed quite appropriate.
Looking good. I’m a bit puzzled by why you inspected two frames at a time, as that seems more tricky than the usual one. Are your frames joined together in pairs?
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No, sorry for the confusion. We only inspected one at a time. I’ll have to reread the post to clarify. Thanks.
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Ah thanks!
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Loved your close up of the queen!
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Thanks Maggie! It helps to have a young assistant to hold the frame. She spotted the queen first, in fact.
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