[redfan]

I've been monitoring the hives for queen cells (in between all of the rain we've been having) and I finally found a couple that looked viable.
They were in the lower super above the top deep, kinda odd place but I've seen queen cells all over the hives in odd places.
Last month I made a queen castle (a deep divided into 4 2-frame chambers each with its own entrance), and I've been itching to use it ever since.
Everything growing around where I live seems to be a couple of weeks later than last year, and the bees are following suit. I had a hive swarm 2-3 times by this time last year. This year, they're just now making/capping queen cells.

On Sunday, I pulled the frame that had good looking cells and put it in the queen castle. Then I pulled a deep frame that had a good mix of capped brood and honey and put it in there as well.
I went back about 3 hours later and saw a couple bees leave from the entrance; a good sign. Hopefully it'll take!