Need some advice

[jwalter04]

I couldn''t help but smile.      Some poeple like to learn the hard way---but learn they do!!
That queen looks nice.  Did you mark her or is she the one you thought was replaced?  Despite her good looks, there are a lot of empty cells scattered among the brood---at this time of the year it shouldn't be like that.  A good queen will lay a solid frame of brood. 

If you are interested in experimenting, I would suggest a nice way for you to raise a new queen while your old one is still working---Take the brood box WITH THE QUEEN and position it on the floor.  Above the brood box, with the queen, place an excluder and above that place your third box with plenty of honey and pollen on both sides of one frame with eggs. 
The distance from the queen is often (but not guaranteed) enough to inspire the bees above to start raising new queens in the top box.  You can check after 3-4 days and see if they are raising any queens.  They might have used young larvae (and not the most desireable just-hatched eggs) so beware of the   possibility of queen emergence earlier than the books say (unless you remove any sealed cells and only leave open queen cells to finish full term queens).
I know my instructions are a bit sketchy, but you'll want to learn by yourself and enjoy the process.  :\'(

I marked her. The original queen from when I started the hive had a blue mark and her wings were clipped. No clue what happened to her or how many queens there have been leading up to this one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LazyBkpr]

Hey that looks better! Well done! Stubborn means your in the right place with eh right hobby, and among a whole bunch of other folks just like you!
   That shotgun pattern in the brood could be from mites or other disease. I'd keep an eye on her and see if she starts to expand as the number of bees in the hive goes up. She will only lay as much as the bees in the hive can cover.
   "Good job, I have quite a few queens that need marked next time your passing through!