Today when I went to check on the nucs, it was obvious that a massive robbing event was underway at the purple and orange nucs (primarily the purple one).  There were bees everywhere in the air in front of the nuc.  Way more bees than is appropriate for the number that reside in the hive.

I immediately closed off the entrances and removed the food.  I went ahead and did an inspection of both nucs. In the purple nuc, which had contained the first emerged descendent of George, I found no sign of the queen and a very small capped queen cell:

You can see that the queen cell is barely longer than the bee tending it.

In the orange nuc, more sad news.  This is the queen cell that I entirely removed the protector from.  I thought it looked like the bees were accepting the cell well.  So proof positive that bee behavior remains a mystery to me:

I apologize for the quality of the photography at this point.  The large dark area on the cell is the perfect circle the bees had chewed out to reveal the immature larva within.  The larva did not seem as developed as I would have expected.  I wonder if this was a cell that maybe didn’t receive enough royal jelly and was not going to fully develop after all.

Instead, the bees are working on this:

This appears as conjoined queen cells.  The one on the left is capped and (if you use your imagination) you can see the larva in the top of the one on the right.  (I could actually see the larva but the photography lacks!)

The plan at this point is to move the nucs (and queen castle) to the outyard.  This should relieve the pressure from the larger colonies next door and keep the bees from my prying eyes for a bit.  (I’m sure they’ll appreciate that!)

Lessons I’m learning here:

1.  I need to set up stronger nucs, particularly during nectar dearth, so they can be more resilient and able to fend for themselves.

2.  It may actually be a wise idea to double up on the queen cells in the mating nucs.  Just because the cell is capped, it does not necessarily follow that the larva will develop without incident.