After finding and marking the Phoenix Hive's Queen, I took a look into the Blue and Purple hive, my best performer for over wintering and honey production of the last two years.

I'd given them candy blocks a couple times throughout the winter and they're eating through them despite having 5-8 frames full of capped honey at their disposal.



I pulled the third frame from the right and saw capped brood.



I flipped the frame over and saw more capped brood on the other side, and the frame next to it.

The brood on one frame looked spotty at first, but when I looked closer it seems the empty cells were where bees recently hatched out. I did notice several young bees walking around and seemed as if they just emerged.



I pulled another frame and (amongst a large chunk of sugar candy stuck to the frame) I found the queen.

I had her marked  a while ago, and wasn't quite sure if she was still in there or not since she all but stopped producing brood in the heat/drought of 2012.

I had trouble finding her in the fall because the hive was boiling over with bee. Each time I saw new eggs or larva, I knew she was in there and so I didn't bother to track her down.



I'm really glad she was marked, now I know for sure she's the same queen and wasn't replaced or superseded.



She had a group of attendants that were following her around taking care of her.



She appears healthy and happy. I'm excited to see they're raising brood and are working on building their colony strength up for the new season.