I have a question about what I should expect to see with a new package which I just installed. The package was installed last week, and the queen-cage plugged with marshmallows as instructed. We were told to check 3 days later to see if the queen had been released - she had been - the cage was empty and not a trace of marshmallow. I removed the cage (no queen inside!), quickly closed up the hive again (also as per instructions) and have been keeping a watch on it from the outside each day. The bees are going in and out, some with pollen, others I assume with nectar. Activity seems to be normal.
Today (8 days after installation) I opened the hive to check. The bees have built comb, mostly on the few frames near where the queen cage was - they have also drawn out the comb on several other frames - I do see what looks like pollen and nectar in some cells, but I could not see the queen (she is marked, but there were so many bees on the frames, and I didn't want to disturb them too much). I looked on several frames but saw neither the queen nor any eggs in cells.
What should I expect to see? How easy is it to spot eggs? How soon would she have started laying? Is this too soon to expect anything?
I had assumed that because the activity of the other bees continues to be normal, the queen must be okay - is this a reasonable assumption? Since this is a new package the bees have no option of raising a queen themselves since there would not have been any fertilized eggs - so do I just leave them, and hope for the best?!