Back in business with a new queen!

I had mentioned in the past that my north bee hive had lost its queen and I had given the hive brood from the healthy hive hoping that they would produce a new queen.  I left them undisturbed for three weeks, and went into the hive this weekend.  I found exactly what I hoped to find --lots of brood, both capped and uncapped.  This tells me that I have a new good laying queen in the hive.  This picture shows the tan capping on brood in the middle, and the white colored cells around the edges hold uncapped larva soon to be capped.

This frame from the middle of the hive shows almost a full frame of capped brood.  This hive seems to be working on building up its numbers as quickly as possible.  There is some capped honey -- the lighter cappings, on the top and bottom of the frame.  I checked all three brood boxes and found capped and uncapped brood in all three.

This hive isn't all brood though.  Here is a full frame of capped honey from the honey super on top of the three brood boxes.

The south healthy hive is still doing well.  Here is the end frame of the second honey super, showing that the frames are filled out completely to the ends with capped honey.  I have put on a third honey super that they have started to fill, though slowly, as there isn't much nectar to gather this time of year.

This shows the bridge comb that the hive had built between the honey boxes.  Previously, this comb had been filled with honey that was dripping all over.  They have cleaned out the honey, but the wax comb is still there.  I really should scrape it off but it is hard to do without scraping up some bees with it.

I pulled a frame out of the middle of the top brood box on the south hive just to make sure the queen in that hive was still healthy.  Here there is lots of capped and some uncapped brood, so this hive still seems to be going strong.

The garden seems to be going strong, too.  We've had rain when we need it so far.  The gourds and pumpkins are blooming, which the bees like.

Here a pumpkin is forming already.

The zucchini are growing quickly and I have picked several in the last week.

Here the ornamental gourd patch is filling in with vines, and trying to invade the grass.

Similarly, the pumpkin and melon patch is filling in.

The first planting of sweet corn is finally starting to tassel.

The cucumbers are starting to produce and I will be picking some very soon.

I have picked my first tomatoes this week too as a few of them are ripening up.