The long awaited inspection of the hive for the first time since last Sunday to place this afternoon. There had been a lot of frenzied activity all week. When I inspected the brood box, I discovered about 6 sealed queen cells which I systematically destroyed. I could not find or see the queen! I tried a few times, carefully looking over all the frames that had bees on but to no avail. I did not see any eggs either although there was sealed brood about. There was also some sealed and unsealed honey and pollen. The sugar solution given to them last Sunday was half full.

I am beginning to wonder whether or not the queen is about. Why so many new queen cells?

Also, I noticed that the floor additional to debris were some reddish crawling insects which I assumed were varroa mites. I observed two in this instance. In have sought advice from where the bee 'nuc' came from.