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If I can't find a queen, and need to, I set up two boxes on a bottom board with a queen excluder between the boxes. I put a frame with brood in the bottom. Then I shake the frames into the top box. The queen can't get to the bottom so, you will eventually find her as the worker and nurse bees go to the brood under the excuser. I do this to do mite checks without killing my queen. Just take a sample of nurse bees below the excluder, safely because the queen is excluded.

Hi Mike, that's a really nice setup you have there. I got my first bees in 2019 and started my RUclips journey about the same time. You seem to be doing well so far. I'm guessing you are "down under" so, the honey flow must be going on down there. I'm want to watch your flow hive saga. I do have a bit of advice for you I'll share. It's based on my experience. I've lost most of my colonies in the last two seasons. I blame that on growing faster than I can keep up. My advice would be not to grow too fast. The work can expand exponentially and it's better to stay with a few hives until you are sure you can handle more. 4-6 is probably ok on your second year but, there is till a lot to learn as you expand. Already "Blue" has some serious issues. Far too few bees and perhaps queenless. You will need to do something if it isn't going to fail. Did you check the queen cap in Green? If there isn't an egg or larva in it, wouldn't worry but, you should keep a check on it.

Another great video, love your enthusiasm and optimism. Blue hive looking much better now but I have to say, I hope you didn't pay full price for that Nuc, you should have had bees covering all 5 frames, and a bit hard to see in the video but should have been a mix of all brood stages, eggs, larvae, pupae and capped brood, all I seen was a little patchy brood and I did see chewed down queen cells x 2 so I say they swarmed prior to you purchasing. Your yellow hive looks like it has a little nosema, keep an eye on that. Look for ward to the updates

The blue wouldn't have survived for much longer. Great work, mate. I'm looking forward to seeing how they progress.I would reduce the entrance in size so the guard bees have a easier time of it. Check the hive it could be many things, but for example AFB so you can rule out diseases.

Hey Mike, great video and thanks for sharing. Just a tip, your blue hive looks queen less so I would confirm that and if so do a combine with your green hive. You mentioned seeing capped brood in your other hives but no mention of eggs or larvae so I would certainly focus on looking for eggs or at least very small larvae to confirm queen presence in recent days if you can't find your queens. I would be a little concerned with your flow hive as your bottom box should be full of eggs/larvae and brood if you had a queen present and you did not mention seeing eggs or larvae in top brood box. How did you do your split? did your queen go to the yellow hive and if so were their eggs in your flow for them to make a new queen?

Hey Mike, I didn't see it. You may have put a frame of capped brood into blue to strengthen them. Cross comb gives the ladies a chance, and they do their own thing😂 how come you are running a double brood box. More for my own curiosity.

I am with @glennmccarthy8773 great video but your white hive should have been reduced to a nuc and really should have left it until you could confirm a laying queen before transferring, you could have a virgin out on a mating flight if it was a cast swarm and she may not find her way back now as you changed hive. Your green hive not strong either so you do need to confirm queen presence either from finding eggs or her majesty herself, use your camera to take close up shots so you can have a real good look inside those polished cells. Your flow hive, I would be addressing that bottom box ASAP to sort out that cross combing as you need to be able to inspect each frame and I would not be putting the flow super on until your other boxes have bees on nearly every frame and built out first, otherwise too much space for them to manage which is what the foul odour could be, too much condensation maybe.

Hey Mike, why didn't you place them in a Nuc being such a small hive, beside that great little video, mate

Great , Ants have a good run up on those straps

Hi, We enjoyed your beekeeping video except for the offputing background music making it hard to watch, please delete this idea in future videos. We watch many beekeeping videos from worldwide presenters and none have background music, keep them coming, Regards Anton (Australian beekeeper)

Hey Mick The hives looking great. Zio gave mum a jar can't wait to try it. I was wondering what you do with the wax? Do you take it out or leave it?

Hi Mate, just a few constructive comments for you, please do not consider them criticisms, just trying to make things easier for you. 1. Don't put your super and excluder on the ground, put them on the inner cover instead. The first time they find your ankles from crawling along the ground, you will know why. 2. Look for eggs and larvae to see if you even have an active queen. Capped brood just means you had a queen in the last few weeks, eggs tell you the last few days. 3. When you removed the first empty frame in pt1, you should have kept it out to give you more room to inspect the brood. 4. You need to be careful with the banging, clanging and dropping frames back into the box. Kind of like a 747 hitting your roof while your watching tv. 5. Your strap isn't doing anything the way you have it, can't stop forward/backward movement, the camlock buckles are useless, at least if you strap around the box assembly with a ratchet strap and it falls over it will stay intact. If an animal hits that strap it will be game over. 6. Over smoke is worse than no smoke, blowing air at them is not high on their list of likes. Smoke is to mask their defence pheromones, that is why you smoke the front guard bees before you start, the rest usually only fire up once you start killing them. Follow note 3, this stops you rolling and injuring them when you remove a frame. Hope this helps you on your beekeeping journey.