Jim and Michael I hope you guys are around today. I got my new queen and I am not sure what to do! I set the new queen cage on top of the frames as you said. At first I thought they liked her but I am not so sure now. I let her set there for about 20 minutes and when I came back some of the bees were really hanging on to the cage with their head hanging on to the wire and there bottoms pointing though the wire. Kind of in a V shape. I don't think that is good but I could use your advise on what to do.
Here what I have done so far.
1. I looked over every frame for the queen. Could not find her.
2. On the frame of brood I installed on the 16th I found some eggs around the permitter of the frame. All so some very small larvae. Strange after 3 days there should be no eggs? The frame had lots of capped broad now. No Queen cells any where. I take it the hive is Queen-rite. She is a bad queen if that is the case. No other frames had eggs.
3. Took the new caged queen in the house and fed them a couple of drops of syrup.
4. I don't know what to do now?!!!
5. I am trying to install some pictures to show you all.
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Just my opinion, but I'd take a few frames from that hive and place them in a nuc. In a couple hours place the queen cage in the queenless nuc and start another hive. If the original queen does fail you could combine your new one with it later.
The picture you're showing as an active Queen in The Colony. Less than three days ago . I can see eggs as well as young lava along with capped brood.
So what have you done with your new Queen?
Have you done any manipulations of the hive.
for which the pictures you are showing?
BEE HAPPY Jim 134. :)
Quote from: Jim 134 on May 19, 2016, 02:40:14 PM
The picture you're showing as an active Queen in The Colony. Less than three days ago . I can see eggs as well as young lava along with capped brood.
So what have you done with your new Queen?
Have you done any manipulations of the hive.
for which the pictures you are showing?
BEE HAPPY Jim 134. :)
This hive at 15 days had no eggs or larvae in it. From fear of having laying workers in this hive I took a frame of eggs and larvae from another hive and placed them in this one. That was on the 16th of May. I ordered another queen for the virgin queen hive. Today the new queen came in the mail. I went out to the hive and placed the new queen cage on top of the frames for a few minutes and the bees tried to kill her. At that point I new there was a virgin queen still in the hive. I started to look for her. When I came to the frame of brood that I had placed in the hive on the 16th it was mostly capped brood but along the edges of that frame I found eggs and tiny larvae which indicates to me that the virgin queen may have started laying as the pictures clearly show. On all the other 7 frames there was no sign of eggs. I am using black foundation and they show up clearly when they are there. Why if the virgin queen started laying hasn't laid in the other 7 frames?
I was unable to find the queen in the hive. So now I am not sure where to go from here or what to do. Sorry if this has been unclear. I guess I should of piggy back this thread on the first one.
x2 what Psparr said
The pictures are from the frame that you added to the hive, right? The larva and capped brood makes sense. The eggs are laying over(freshly hatched) which I assume are 3-4 days old. When did you install the frame? (3 days ago?) That could explain those. As far as no queen cells, that is a sign that it is queenright. With no eggs on any other frames, would suggest queenlessness. Yes I'm contradicting myself. I would probably put the queen in the hive and leave it overnight to see if they accept her. Hopefully someone else will offer up some advice.
Quote from: cao on May 19, 2016, 04:23:09 PM
The pictures are from the frame that you added to the hive, right? The larva and capped brood makes sense. The eggs are laying over(freshly hatched) which I assume are 3-4 days old. When did you install the frame? (3 days ago?) That could explain those. As far as no queen cells, that is a sign that it is queenright. With no eggs on any other frames, would suggest queenlessness. Yes I'm contradicting myself. I would probably put the queen in the hive and leave it overnight to see if they accept her. Hopefully someone else will offer up some advice.
I guess that is one point I was trying to make but failed miserably. I put the frame of brood in the virgin queen hive on the 16th of may. The eggs that I am seeing may have been laid in the original hive before I transferred them into the virgin queen hive as today in the 19th. If that is the case I still have a virgin queen that still is not laying. Now the question is how do I find her so I can pinch her so as to introduce the new queen?
Wait another few days and look for eggs. Then make a decision.
Was this picture taken on the same day you add the frame of eggs?
If not how many days after? There are pictures of eggs on one of these frames which indicates it has been a queen there in less than 3 days.
To me this is why is important to write things down so you can figure out your timeline. I hope you have a great adventure in beekeeping.
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
The picture was taken on day 18. I no the time line and have explained it here. It has been documented. Thank you for your help.
I hope I'm following the timeline right. The frame was pulled from the donor hive on the 16th and the pics were taken on the 18th, then yes, there could still be eggs from the donor hive.
In the second pic, lower right it looks like they're pulling out a queen cup, I would see if there's any progress on that today. If it is, I would go ahead and install the queen and leave the cork in so at least she'll be fed.
If I'm not getting it right discount the above as to much coffee and not enough time to reread!
Quote from: rwlaw on May 20, 2016, 09:16:00 AM
In the second pic, lower right it looks like they're pulling out a queen cup, I would see if there's any progress on that today.
Good catch. I didn't see that before. If there is a larva in it, then they are(were) queenless. So then the question is what to do. As I see it, there are a couple of options.
One, put the queen in the hive for a day or two and see if they accept her. The downside, if they have started the queen cell they may feel that they are queenright and not accept her. That may have been the reaction that you saw with your queen.
Two, let them raise there own queen. Pull a frame of bees from one of your other hives. Put it in a nuc. Let it sit for awhile so they know they are queenless. Introduce your queen to them. The advantage here is that if there queen doesn't make it back then you could combine them then.
I would tend to go with option two(provided there is a larva in the queen cell).
I hope my posts are helping and not adding to the confusion.
I want to thank everyone for their input. Everyone has been very helpful. I don't no why I get so stressed out about this hive. I guess I was so much wanting it to succeed.
I FOUND THE QUEEN!! I local man came over that I never new was into bees and he caught him for me. I don't now how I could of missed her. She was a jet black carnelian. Looked nothing like the rest of the bees. I am going to get one of them queen catcher things.
billdean, Here's what I suggest on catching the queen. My experience has taught (right or wrong) that if you use a device to catch a queen then you have to go back to God and ask for and additional arm. You need three hands to do it and not harm the queen.
Practice on drones. Come from the rear and try to lift up the wing to pick her up, gloveless. Then if you want to mark her as well offer her the index finger on the other hand to grab on to with her legs. Then hold her by the legs.
Quote from: GSF on May 20, 2016, 03:03:02 PM
billdean, Here's what I suggest on catching the queen. My experience has taught (right or wrong) that if you use a device to catch a queen then you have to go back to God and ask for and additional arm. You need three hands to do it and not harm the queen.
Practice on drones. Come from the rear and try to lift up the wing to pick her up, gloveless. Then if you want to mark her as well offer her the index finger on the other hand to grab on to with her legs. Then hold her by the legs.
Thank you GSF.......I did catch the queen in this hive and I did not really care if I hurt her or not. She needed to go. I installed the virgin queen on May 2nd and as of today she never laid an egg. What you have suggested above is good information that I can use if I want to keep a queen. Thank you for your input.
Quote from: billdean on May 20, 2016, 12:59:02 PM
I FOUND THE QUEEN!! I local man came over that I never new was into bees and he caught him for me. I don't now how I could of missed her. She was a jet black carnelian.
I found the problem she was a he.... :wink: just kidding, glad you got it sorted out...
Mann lake has a queen marking device that is real nice to use. I really like it. You put her in it, slide the slotted lid up to close it and then push the plunger up to hold her in place while you mark her. Then you lower the plunger to let her dry and release her on the top of the frames.
Jim
Here is the link.
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeeping-supplies/product/HD-101.html
Quote from: sawdstmakr on May 21, 2016, 07:41:47 AM
Here is the link.
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/beekeeping-supplies/product/HD-101.html
Thank You Jim
This device is very useful. I mark my queens with this device over 3years. It's worth it!
I have that device and thought it was awesome until.., the rats chewed up the cushion. One word of advice. Be careful about closing or opening the lid you can end up cutting the queen in half or damaging her. It is a real helpful device though. I really enjoyed it but I had it all backwards. I would chase the queen and try to herd her in it. If you chase her enough she'll take flight.
Actually suppose to be a one handed queen catcher...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g6U_JpXjf0
Thanks sc-bee..........thats pretty cool. Looks like I might be able to do that.