The first several days after a queen is caged, worker bees will try to create a new queen by manufacturing royal jelly and placing a bed of it in multiple queen cups. Then they drag an egg out of a cell to plant it into the jellified queen cup. The last thing you want is a new, unmarked queen to start laying eggs again. Remove all queen cells until all eggs have metamorphized into larva. After this, you shouldn't see anymore viable queen cells.
Along with the Angels, the Longs, and the O'Learys, we robbed two hives at Plant Kingdom last week. We ended up with eight gallons from this initial harvest. It has been several years since we have had such light honey. It is nearly transparent.
The Farmer's Market was bustling this Wednesday!
Checked the hive last Sunday; this made it about five days after caging the queen. Removed many, many capped queen cells and many more queen cups. Checked the hive yesterday (THU) and identified only one capped queen cell and a few queen cups. Removed all of them. No eggs identified. Have about 10 frames that have capped brood. Looks like the bees have been into their honey -- some 'roughness' to the caps. What with the recent mild temperatures and monsoon-like rains I suppose they haven't had much of a chance to forage.
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