<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/new-bee-colonyaug19.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-5795 size-medium" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/new-bee-colonyaug19-300x226.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="226" /></a>After getting back from Edinburgh I wanted to do a final inspection on my dieing colony. I didn't expect to find many bees so I didn't bother with the smoker however I did put on my bee suit and I was glad I did. As I took the hive apart in the brood box there were a lot of bees, many more than I expected. As I worked my way through the frames I could see larvae and capped brood which are signs a queen has been laying. My conclusion is that either a new queen flew into the hive and set up home or the clever little devils created a queen for themselves. The little, white squiggles in the comb are larvae. Once they have been fed sufficiently, after 8 days they will be capped off and after another 12 days a worker bee will emerge.

The downside is that these new bees are incredibly aggressive. Once I start lifting the frames out they were buzzing around my head and really telling me off. I tried sweet talking to them in dulcet tones but they were having none of it. It is possible the new queen is laying genetically aggressive bees, it does happen. Normally, if that's the case, people consider replacing the queen but I haven't got one to replace her with so I'm hoping they will settle down and get used to me.

I'm still going down to Banbury to collect a second brood (<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/archives/5745" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">see previous post</a>) as an insurance that at least one of the colonies will survive the winter.