How bad did I screw up?

[beverlydale]

Hey, hope spmebody can help me with this question.  I am a total beginner, just learning out of books.  So I got the bees and put th queen ion but I misunderstood how to do it and took the wrong plug out of the queen cage.  3 days later ( today) I opened the hive but didn't really know what I was looking at.  I was hoping I would see the queen or evidence but there wasn't much to see .  Bes hanging on tho the wax foundation.  So, what's the next st?  Thanks a million.

[G3farms]

Sounds like you need a mentor to help get you started off in the right direction. Posting your location would greatly help with that, at least you county and state. Check on the web for a local bee club, you will find most are helpful and willing to share, might even be somebody just down the road.

Hopefully they did not ball the new queen (kill her).

Are you feeding them any syrup?

Did you pull any of the frames out to see if comb was being pulled?

I would give them about a week and then look for eggs and larva, they will be hard to see on the new drawn white comb but should be there. If no evidence of eggs or larva go on the hunt for your queen, was she marked?

[beverlydale]

Hi.  Thanks for the reply.  Yes, I did just sort of dive in and hope to figure it out.  My schedule is crazy and I couldn't work in a class.  Unfortunately the book I was using is a bit confusing about the plug and candy etc.  Got another book and realized what I'd done wrong.  I checked the hive again, a little braver this time and looked more closely but still didn't see anything to let me know the queen was there.  I will check in a week as you suggested.   I've located a place to get queens if I have to.  Thanks again.  I'm in Bogart Georgia, near Athens.

[buzzbee]

Are the bees bringing pollen into the hive on return flights? Another possible sign of brood rearing. :)

[AllenF]

Just start hitting the beekeeping videos out there, on this site, on other sites, and on Youtube.   A pic is worth a thousand words.   A video is worth a hundred thousand words.  Amazing worth of knowledge out there.

[sc-bee]

You have plenty good beekeepers in your area and I am sure a club nearby. Find a mentor and ask if you may visit his yard for some instructions. Beekeeping for dummies is a book with alot of good pictures (if I remember right).

He is a link to the Georgia Beekeepers: I see there are clubs in Clarke-Oconee and Oglethorpe Counties. I see you are in Oconee county. Drop them an e-mail and ask questions about a mentor.
http://www.gabeekeeping.com/local_clubs.html

Univ of Ga. sponsors a great beekeeping program and research with Keith Deleplane and Jennifer Berry. It runs triple rings around ours

It is most probably too early to be seeing any eggs laid by the queen. Not sure of you age or eyesight but they are often hard to see by the untrained eye the first time. A small LED light shined in the cells will help with this task. After about a week look for something that looks like a small grain of white rice at the bottom of drawn cells. As mention you need to feed a new package on foundation sugar syrup: 1:1 ratio (1lb sugar mixed per 1pt of water) to assist the bees in drawing out the comb. They may or may not take it if your flow is own and it most probably is.  

[buzzbee]

SC,you are right about hard to see the eggs at this stage. As I recall,BrianDBray called it looking at a grain of rice at the bottom of a trash can. White eggs on fresh white wax also makes it tough.

[CapnChkn]

Yepper, Listen to these people!

We had bees the whole time I was growing up, I haven't had anything to do with them since 1982.  Now I have started again and I can tell you just reading the books, the pamphlets from the AG Extension, and talking with Eddie (who used to call all his hives "gums."), never prepared me for all the stuff I have had to learn in the last year.

Check out the videos.  They will give you more insight than most of the stuff you'll have to picture in your mind.  Join the local beekeepers association.  And don't stop asking questions, even if you think you might embarrass yourself.

[beverlydale]

Thanks everybody.  Live and learn.  I just checked and the bees returning are carrying a lot of pollen, bless their little hearts.  I'll know more in a week.  Thanks again.