I put the beautiful frame of mostly eggs and young brood into a pillow case and put it in the back of my warm car (it was 87 in Atlanta that day). I drove to Jeff's office and picked him up to go to Tom's. We opened the hive.
Inside the hive, the frames had some brood but it was all drone. I think after the swarm the queen must have either been short bred (a Keith Fielder term meaning that she only mated with a couple of drones - not enough to allow her to function as a good layer). Anyway we pulled a frame from the bottom box that had a baseball sized circle of drone brood in the center. The rest of the frame had all the worker cells back-filled with nectar and there was honey at the corners, as is typical in a brood frame.
We added the beautiful Stonehurst brood/egg frame to the hive. I am crossing my fingers that they will now be able to make a successful queen.
Jeff and I couldn't resist sticking our finger hive tool into the corner of the frame to taste the honey. Yum - it had a sweetness followed by a spicy end note - delicious. We didn't have anywhere else to put the frame, so I put it in the back of the car to take home.
I let Jeff out at his office and he went in to tell the staff that we had a taste of honey in the car. At least six people came running out of the building brandishing spoons! I didn't get the camera up and running fast enough.
All six of them had a taste. Jeff works at a casting agency and they know how to have fun! All of them enjoyed the honey adventure, I think. And I had a great time sharing our honey moment with them as well.
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