Last week was hellish as far as the weather was concerned. Whenever I was near, it was tipping down monsoon-style.

So, after a weekend away, of course, I heard I’d lost a swarm. Anyway, just as I was looking through a rather empty looking box, I found these bees paying rather a lot of attention to this queen cell. So, I picked it open and see what happened.

By the way, the queen cell immediately below this one was a dud. There was nothing in it, so I don’t know why they made a multi-storey cell for Her Majesty.

And yes, I know the comb is a bit crappy – it’s due for a change, OK?