Need help assessing my new hive and next steps. Got bees for first time on 4/25 w/queen. Has been pretty rainy ever since. They are eating the syrup I provide, building comb and there's a lot of honey and pollen but no larvae or worker cells that I see. Opened on 5/14 and there were many (5 or 6) emergency queen cells which I destroyed (in hindsight I probably would have kept several and let them fix situation themselves). Got a new queen and introduced her on 5/16. It is now 6/6 and I still see no larvae or worker cells. There's one what looks like a queen cup (not cell?) but I 'm not sure anything was in it as they had just started making it 1 week ago. So I'm not sure what to do. They are working away and I did not hear the "roar" I read I'd hear if they are queenless. Would be grateful for any help on what I should be doing. Thanks.
do not know where you live
find a local beek to be a mentor
join a bee club
It will help to put your location in your profile. so your second queen was released on 5/16, or you put the cage in there and she was release later?
Pictures would be helpful, but you'll need to get an admin to post them for you since you are new. that's ok. they do it all the time. is this your only hive?
jayj200 is right that if you can find someone local to take a look and maybe help you out, it will be better than trying to help you this way and that's another reason for posting your location. we'll be able to see who is close of where a club is in your area.
Just guessing, but are you located in Golden, Colorado? Second that you put it in your profile.
guessing that the CO stands for Colorado, this might be a place to start.
don't delay, though. if you have lost your queen again you don't have much time to save the hive.
another thing that might have happened is that one of those early queen cells produced a queen and due to your bad weather, she took time to get mated and laying. she should be laying by now if she hatched close to the time you saw the cells...
http://coloradobeekeepers.org/
Thanks. Yes, Just added Golden, Colorado to my profile. Sorry about that. I have been trying to figure out where to find a mentor but this isn't completely obvious to me, though I will join a bee club ASAP. To respond to one question, I put the second queen in, in a cage on 5/16. When I checked several days later, she was out. Being new and since she wasn't marked, I haven't seen her in the hive. I see lots of white capped honey along the top of the frames and a lot of pollen. There were a few clear wet cells today, which I thought were water but perhaps are larvae? The weather here has been horrible this spring with non-stop rain for weeks at a time. For the past week, we've had some sunny weather on and off with rain during the day. I guess I'm wondering if the weather could be messing things up and have prevented the replacement queen from her flight for a while so she's back a week or so? But since I've had this hive now for 6 weeks and still no tan was cappings for worker cells, perhaps I should try another queen. I will try to deal with this more locally, but if anyone has thoughts, I'd appreciate it.
The replacement Queen you installed on 5/16 shouldn't have went on a mating flight if she was a mated queen.
If she wasn't mated then she may just be beginning to lay.
From the day that egg was laid till you have a laying queen is around 29 days.
And going into a hive too much can disrupt the hive making the workers think the queen is what is causing all the disturbance.
Quote from: capt44 on June 06, 2015, 06:59:03 PM
The replacement Queen you installed on 5/16 shouldn't have went on a mating flight if she was a mated queen.
If she wasn't mated then she may just be beginning to lay.
From the day that egg was laid till you have a laying queen is around 29 days.
And going into a hive too much can disrupt the hive making the workers think the queen is what is causing all the disturbance.
Yep^^^ Like Capn Said.
I had a nuc that the calendars showed should have had a queen, went in and sure enough, saw a virgin scurrying. Wanted to make sure she made it back from her flight, so, went in a week later and there she was, Fat and beautiful, saw eggs, went to put the hive back together, wanted to see her one more time, didnt see her on the frame, didnt see her in the grass, a week later, i have a beautiful capped emergency cell, amongst a
rock solid laid broodframe. Start all over...look in 2 weeks...... I hate losing a good queen. Moral of the story, only intrude when necessary. G
Ok. Thanks everyone for all your input. I have been being careful and opening the hive at most, 1x per week - and generally less. I will give it one more week. and the get a replacement queen ASAP if I don't seeing any eggs. I'm also trying to find someone locally as a mentor and to come take a look. Really appreciate you sharing your expertise.
I hived 4 packages on 4/25. Two are doing well. One had a failed supersedure and is now 2 nice nucs ( gave 'em eggs). They looked pretty bad last week - my old eyes couldn't spot the eggs. This week there was abundant brood in all stages, with a bunch of new even capped brood (worker, not drone) The other package superseded a little later. I'm giving it another week. This ridiculous rain isn't allowing much time for mating flights but 2 of mine got it done.
Just a quick update, and again thanks for all the input. All is well. Found - and marked - our queen. Lots of larvae of different sizes and capped worker brood. Phew! So looks like we're over this first hump.
Quote from: GoldenCO on June 11, 2015, 03:00:00 PM
Just a quick update, and again thanks for all the input. All is well. Found - and marked - our queen. Lots of larvae of different sizes and capped worker brood. Phew! So looks like we're over this first hump.
Congratulations and welcome to your new addiction. G :wink:
What Big G said.
This is a very addictive hobbie.
Jim