It’s late so I’ll be brief. I checked my two NUCs today at around 3 pm and neither queen (George 2) had yet emerged.
Hive 6 only had a handful of bees with another handful of capped brood cells available. I opened the cage and I expect that she will be out by tomorrow.
Hive 7 had more bees and lots of capped brood on both sides of one frame, but neither hive had any young brood to provide some work for the nurse bees. Perhaps this is why so many bees have fled. It did appear that hive 7 was starting to store some nectar in the frame of previously empty comb.
I will have to keep a close eye on the number of bees and probably add some to hive 6 if not both. I have not yet started to feed so I will need to do that tomorrow.
Liz called this day 13, but I still believe this to be day 15 of the 16 day brood cycle of a queen. Working backwards, that make grafting day, day 4 of the cycle. Liz had one queen emerge today, so it must have been a three-day-old egg that was grafted.