And breathe

Everything that I described on 18 May has happened. The queen we saw on 24 May has come of age. It's possible that, in the poor light on that day, there were eggs in the bottom of cells, so deep in gloom that I could not see them. Either that, or she began to lay the instant our back was turned, because now there are substantial areas of sealed cells like those on the left 

Cells are sealed eight days after the egg is layed. I hoped this image would contain the holy grail of BIAS that all beekeepers are searching for - that is Brood In All Stages, but I can't see any eggs (ironically, there was too much sun to see the phone screen clearly!). Nevertheless, if you zoom in a little, there are well grown larvae squeezed into a tight c-shaped curl in the open cells on the left, at the point of being sealed in the cell with a wax cap until they have transformed into an adult bee

Near the top, in the centre, there are also some much smaller larvae - still in the approved c-shape, despite having more room - floating in a pool of creamy fluid. This is the mythical 'royal jelly', that is fed to all young larvae, but in much larger quantities to developing queens. It is high in proteins and carbohydrates, and exuded by the hypopharingeal gland in the head of worker bees - who eat honey/nectar and pollen to fuel its production; the array of colours on the right make up quite a pollen smörgåsbord

So I have most stages of the first eight days of a bee's existence. No emerging adults, of course - that will not happen until 20 days after the egg was layed, so not until the end of next week, maybe the 12th or 13th. I took the old queen away from this colony on 27 April, and the replacement process could not really have gone any more smoothly. Patience is required from both the bees and ourselves