Another Smoke Test

Today, I visited Christi B.’s apiary.  We saw some fascinating things, a few of which were different than what I saw at Alan’s, and I got some more pictures.

Christi keeps some of her bees at a neat small farm in DeSoto, a few miles south of Dallas.

We got to see purple-eyed drone brood, which is meaningful in determining their developmental stage.

All hail the Queen!

This hive was very strong, and had lots of queen cups.  I couldn’t see an egg in any of them, but the hive was definitely preparing for a reproductive swarm.

I finally got a shot that shows the egg (very center, lower left, center bottom) and also some small open brood.  The puddle of goo they’re sitting in is royal jelly.