Ok, I'm much sadder than I was. I have three hives, and all have bees coming and going with pollen and nectar.
Today, I opened the hives since it was a 73 degree day. The first hive had bees, but not many, and I never found a queen, brood OR eggs. In the second hive (Russians), I found more bees, but still not many. Again, no eggs, brood, queen, or larvae. In the third hive, I found Her Majesty!! She was in the upper box, and there were lots of eggs, capped brood and larvae!! I was very happy after the condition of the first three.
So my question is if it would be worth ordering a new queen or two for the other hives, or give them some time, and possibly do a split from the third hive later?
Thanks for your help!
Disappointed in Milton.
Are all the hive's Russian's bees ??
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Jim,
No, two are Italians, and one is Russian. The queen that's been spotted is Italian.
Here she is:
(http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/oo149/Mountaineerfan12000/DSCN3303.jpg)
MountaineerFan. I would combine those two colonies with the one with the queen. If you are seeing small amounts of bees in those two , the likelihood of these colonies having the ability to take care of brood is remote. They are small in numbers and could not keep brood warm. Combine. Use the newspaper method. I honestly must be blatent here and not get your hopes up, they wouldn't make it and you would be wasting your money on a queen/s. Good luck. Have the best of a wonderful day, health, life. Cindi
Cindi is right, combine them with newspaper, in there deeps, then after they chew up teh paper and make nice, remove the extra deeps and order new packages for you other two hives......
I wouldn't mess with the Russian hive, just because you didn't see the doesn't mean she isn't there, Russian dont build up like Italians in early spring, they want build up until a flow is on then they explode, Russians also winter in small clusters so you want have many bee's like the Italian hives, now I am not saying she isn't lost but if you combine them then she will be. bet shes there and you just didn't find her. when dealing with Russian you need to talk to someone that knows Russians, they aren't like the other races, they are a different management.
Quote from: TwT on March 07, 2009, 10:03:47 PM
I wouldn't mess with the Russian hive, just because you didn't see the doesn't mean she isn't there, Russian don't build up like Italians in early spring, they want build up until a flow is on then they explode, Russians also winter in small clusters so you want have many bee's like the Italian hives, now I am not saying she isn't lost but if you combine them then she will be. bet shes there and you just didn't find her. when dealing with Russian you need to talk to someone that knows Russians, they aren't like the other races, they are a different management.
If you are a newbee 1 to 5 year's to beekeeping ITALIAN'S are for you or find someone to help you who knows Russian's IMO
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
I agree with Ted. I would most probably combine 1 and 3 but leave the Russian hive alone. As Ted pointed out Russians are known for wintering in smaller clusters. They are also known for being slow starters but come on strong. They are also noted for building lots of swarm cells but they have a tendancy to break them down as well.
They are a different bee for sure. I've had 4 Russian hives over the yrs, one stood out in particular as one of the strongest hives I've ever had.
Of course Russians are also known to have a little bit of attitude but not always. 1 out of my 4 was testy.
...JP
Thanks for all the information! I knew this was the board to come to! I'm going to give both hives a little more time, and then see how they are doing. Hopefully I'll have some frames of brood from the third hive of Italians and can give it to the first hive. The russians will need to wait awhile.
I have nothing to add to the situation that Ted hasn't already said.
But I will say this is a perfect example of where having marked queens possibly would have alleviated this whole concern. There is contemplation of requeening and combining because a queen could not be spotted. What are the consequence of either of these actions if indeed a queen does exist?