To say the session was busy is an understatement. Before the training began we went through 7 colonies looking to see if the queens were laying, removed a couple frames of eggs for a member whose colony had gone queenless. Two colonies have laying queens which were marked, one of the colonies was later split to make up the observation hive with the remaining frames making up a Nuc around two queen cells from hive 1.
During the training we examined 6 colonies, hive 1 has sealed queen cells so we reduced their number, hive 2 had a new floor fitted, hives 3, 4, 6 and 8 all are performing well.
During the pre-training examinations we did see 3 queens but no signs of laying so we did not mark the queens. In one of the hives we were unsure about a queen cell that was still capped so eased off the cap and a virgin queens head appeared, at the same instant another queen appeared at the cell with the intent of investigating her opponent (looked just like a cat perched on hind legs peering over an edge). We cut out the cell with new queen inside and put her in a cage in the glove compartment of a car. She later fully emerged and we ran her into a Nuc that appeared queenless.
Finally as it was getting dark we retrieved another frame of eggs for another member with a queenless colony, to say the bees were not happy was an understatement!!
Mid Bucks Beekeepers Association Blog 