Checking new queens and adding supers

Our truck, at the OSR site loaded with supers for the splits, a full load would be 40 supers if we go 5 high. In this instance I had 30 on board for the colonies here.



First though all colonies have to be checked for queens I previously introduced into splits on this site. I always like to check that the bees have released the queens from their cages as they can die while waiting to be released if there are problems.
There was in fact a problem with four colonies were the candy blocking the release hole had gone rock hard and the bees had not been able to chew through to release the queen. These four I released by hand which was fine except for one, where the queen flew off, I closed the colony up quickly and hoped that she'd return later. I'll find out later this week.



The OSR flowers are about 80% to 90% out now as you can see form the picture below. The final whorl on the top of the flower spike hasn't opened yet, so if the weather is kind we may get 2 to 3 weeks of nectar flow from this crop.