I spent last night keeping my fingers crossed that the queen is in the new hive. There’s not really much I can do if she’s not, except attempt to re-queen, but I’m not sure if I’m really up to that. I got up this morning and checked to see if the hive was still there. It was. Then, after it started getting light, significant activity was noticed in front of the hive. Obvious orientation flights were taking place, which is a good sign. It doesn’t mean the queen is present, but at least they are getting on with business.

A little later in the morning, I opened the hive to put in the frames I left out last night. I had purchased some “all in one” plastic frames that contained foundation of a smaller, more natural, cell size. But the topic of smaller cell size is for another post.

Anyway, I opened the hive and pulled one of the empty frames (I neglected to glue a starter strip to the top of my frames). The bees were hard at it making wax. This process is called “festooning”. The bees join legs and hang from the top of the frame and place wax into the frame. Another good sign. Not necessarily of the presence of the queen, but the girls were keeping busy.

So I put the missing frames in and buttoned the hive up. Now, I’ll just wait and see.