Sealed Queen Cell.

It was on Tuesday that I took this frame of brood (complete with attendant bees) from the apiary and gave it to the nuc in the garden. The nuc was made up a few weeks ago, partly to prevent the mother colony from swarming and, partly because I wanted another colony. There are still a lot of drones around so there was a good chance of taking it through the winter but, when the queen didn’t emerge from pupation, a quick check showed that she had died before beginning to metamorphose.
 
I imagine that the bees neglected her for some reason, though the way bees are behaving these days, perhaps they don’t need a reason. I figured that some fresh young bees might look after the queen developing one of the eggs and, since they came from the same mother colony as the initial nuc, there shouldn’t be any squabbling. Having said that, there’s no reason why the same thing shouldn’t happen again.
 
If this does work, there should be enough bees to get through the winter, particularly if I keep it in the garden where it will be protected from the elements and I can keep an eye on it but, first, I’ll take it back to the apiary for the queen to mate as I know there are plenty of drones there. Time will tell whether I’m successful, I have reached the stage where I have no idea what's happening. For my first thirty years of keeping bees, if I had a sealed queen cell, then I would get a successful queen; these days I worry about whether the lady will be successfully mated and subsequently accepted by her colony. It seems to be a common problem.
 
I’ve just posted yesterdays Blip, “Inside a Jam Jar."