Had my big inspection of the five hives this weekend, I had to correct one errant hive that was building comb across the frames and I have to admit I was really supprised at how gentle they were as I cut comb and hung it in the 5 frame traps.
My mistake was on another hive, it had appeared to have slowed almost to a stop with building comb, they were packing in the honey and pollen, but there was no sign of larvae or capped brood (hive is a month old) all my other hives have lots of brood. I could not see any sign of the queen but did find 3 drone cells in the whole hive :?
I went out and got a new queen and just by chance met my mentor at the store who said he would come over and look. First thing he said was they were not acting like a queenless hive, then he found the queen. We watched her for a while and she was going through the actions of laying, but if she had done this for almost a month where was the brood ?
Just in case she is a late starter we took her and a frame of good brood and placed her in a new hive, give her another month and see what happens, the new queen went in her old hive.
I guess the rookie mistake was me assuming no queen, but she could still turn out to be a no good queen.
So at least for now I have six hives.
if that's the worst mistake you make, you are off to a romping good start! :-)
there is no bee law that says a queenless hive has to act queenless. as an example, my laying worker hive was very nice and very quiet. my mistake for not going to the bottom earlier and catching the fact that they were queenless.
sounds like you lost nothing but the cost of a new queen, and gained knowledge.
i would have been tempted to pinch that slow queen and replace her, but again, nothing lost if you can keep the numbers up in that hive and not damage your others.
sounds like a winning mistake to me, a win win thing, you got a new queen, thats a win, you got a start on a nuc, thats a win, if you get two for one. well thats a win win to me. Hope she starts to lay for you.
If the queen was going through the motions of laying but no eggs they I would have to suspect queen failure with some type of abdomenal injury or obstruction. But you probably already discussed this thoroughly with your mentor. Aren't they handy? But the measured you used by isolating the queen in a separate nuc will tell the tail.
Getting the queen was also a good move in this case. But either way you have a new nuc started. Now the question is, are you going to keep it as a separate unit?
Quote from: Brian D. Bray on May 04, 2009, 12:55:09 AM
If the queen was going through the motions of laying but no eggs they I would have to suspect queen failure with some type of abdomenal injury or obstruction. But you probably already discussed this thoroughly with your mentor. Aren't they handy? But the measured you used by isolating the queen in a separate nuc will tell the tail.
Getting the queen was also a good move in this case. But either way you have a new nuc started. Now the question is, are you going to keep it as a separate unit?
If she comes around I will keep her in her new hive, if not I will have to revisit my options. Never planned on having six hives my first year and I am getting short of boxes and frames, not desperate yeat but that could change in another month.
Quote from: oldenglish on May 04, 2009, 01:56:46 PM
Quote from: Brian D. Bray on May 04, 2009, 12:55:09 AM
If the queen was going through the motions of laying but no eggs they I would have to suspect queen failure with some type of abdomenal injury or obstruction. But you probably already discussed this thoroughly with your mentor. Aren't they handy? But the measured you used by isolating the queen in a separate nuc will tell the tail.
Getting the queen was also a good move in this case. But either way you have a new nuc started. Now the question is, are you going to keep it as a separate unit?
If she comes around I will keep her in her new hive, if not I will have to revisit my options. Never planned on having six hives my first year and I am getting short of boxes and frames, not desperate yeat but that could change in another month.
If you're using 8 frames I have some boxes I haven't put together yet, along with those frames you need, we'll get you through.