Picture of a hive

I finally got round to doing the brood box inspection with Liam as I just didnt have the strength to prise some of the frames apart. Fingers crossed, everything seems OK. We saw the Queen and a full complement of stores, capped and uncapped brood and eggs - both standing up and lying down.

It seems a shame somehow to be wishing for Queen Cells so that we can go ahead and start stage two of splitting the hive but that is what we are now watching and waiting for...

But until this happens, inspections will continue as normal. Below are my notes (probably not very interesting) as to what we found on each frame - and what I need to remember to do next time!

1. Stores on both sides
2. Stores on both sides
3. Stores on both sides
4. Stores on one side, 80% eggs on the other
5. Mixture sealed and unsealed brood, eggs
6. Mixture sealed and unsealed brood, eggs
7. Unsealed brood
8. Mixture sealed and unsealed brood, eggs
9. Queen (!) eggs, a few drone cells
10. Stores on both sides
11. Stores on both sides

Next time: Insert varroa tray, bring icing sugar, maybe new brood box so we can swap over and clean the old one?