I checked my bee hive for the first time today.  The weather forecast was good, it has been a week since I started it, and I had all the supplies ready.  I lit my smoker for the first time, had my sugar syrup ready, and donned my bee outfit.  I managed to get the lid off OK, but then spilled syrup everywhere when I tried to removed the feeder. I was expecting to find a lot of dead bees but instead found a lot of living bees working the frames.  I checked all the frames and think I see eggs in them.  I removed the queen cage which is empty and tried to add another frame, but it wouldn’t fit.  I decided to have all the frames be identical thinking they would fit.  So I removed two wooden frames and replaced them with 2 plastic ones which with some finagling did fit.  I then put the new syrup feeder in but managed to spill most of it both inside and outside the hive.  I put the lid back on and went into the house to make more syrup.  When it had cooled I managed to open the lid again and put the feeder in.  After all that bee trauma here is the hive with the reducer in place as well as the smoker and all the spilled syrup.

I brought the burr combs and one of the frames I removed into the house for closer inspection.  Below is the frame with the honey comb on it.

I do not see any eggs for certain in this comb.  There is one speck that is suspicious for an egg, but it doesn’t look as smooth as the eggs do in the photos I have seen.  This frame was at the end of the hive though so the queen may not have made it this far.

So hopefully the queen is in there doing her job. and the rest of the bees are not too upset with their bumbling bee keeper.