Without an established queen in the 'old hive' the bees are agitated and quite aggressive. Those guys go straight for the face! Until a new queen emerges in that hive this behavior will continue. However, on that front, we have great news. In at least two queen cups (for sure) I can see the curled larvae of a pre-queen in a pool of royal jelly. These cells have been upgraded from queen cups to Queen Cells.
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| Queen Larvae in Royal Jelly (Courtesy of Wikipedia) |
The nurse bees tend to these cells diligently, preparing the future leader of the hive with all the nutrients required for her busy life of eggs laying (~2000+ a day). This graphic below (age in days) has helped me to determine that these future queens were laid as eggs the middle of last week. In about four days I anticipate the queen cells to be capped, which will reliably show they are then 8 days old.
that's interesting... i think i'm gonna learn a lot reading your blog - bravo kevin
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