Puzzled

GSF · March 19, 2016, 07:31:41 AM

Bewildered, Along the lines of what acebird said, there's a lot of things that could have happened to the queen other than the beek.

Beewildered61 · March 19, 2016, 09:52:05 AM

No, I never saw the queen afterward... well, what would you think... When I got there and he was showing me the frames, the bees were upset, he said it was because he had already went in the nuc and took the queen out to show me. He started getting stung several times, so I backed up aways (I didn't have on a hood and he didn't at first). After he put the queen in my hive with the frames, he kept picking up the hive a few inches and dropping it, banging it around and then looking on the ground... I had the deep, top and screened bottom board all held together with a bungy cord. Finally he banged the hive and made the bungy cord come loose and he kept looking all over the ground. I wondered what in the heck he was doing...he took the whole hive apart and turned up the bottom board, dumping what bees were on it, on the ground, then he finally put it all back together and took it to my truck.... I kept thinking about it on the way home, why did he do what he did? Then the first couple times I looked for the queen and didn't see her, I started thinking maybe he didn't put that queen back in the hive...

This guy worked for a commercial beekeeper and was selling nucs from his own home, with an ad on craig list. This is just my opinion....

Something else strange about the bees? When I saw them flying all around the hive the other day, I had just put out a feeder. Usually with in a short time bees are all over it, but when all the excitement was going on, there were no bees at the feeder, and when I refilled the jar yeaerday and went back a couple hours later, there was hardly any bees at the feeder and they hadn't ate hardly any of it....

Acebird · March 19, 2016, 10:06:53 AM

Quote from: Beewildered61 on March 19, 2016, 09:52:05 AM
I kept thinking about it on the way home, why did he do what he did? Then the first couple times I looked for the queen and didn't see her, I started thinking maybe he didn't put that queen back in the hive...

Or accidentally killed her.

QuoteSomething else strange about the bees? When I saw them flying all around the hive the other day, I had just put out a feeder. Usually with in a short time bees are all over it, but when all the excitement was going on, there were no bees at the feeder, and when I refilled the jar yeaerday and went back a couple hours later, there was hardly any bees at the feeder and they hadn't ate hardly any of it....

This is not so strange. If you do have a flow going on they will usually ignore feeders.

Beewildered61 · March 19, 2016, 10:18:24 AM

Well, some things have started blooming here... pear and plum and peach for sure. Be fine with me, if they don't the syrup!

Beewildered61 · March 19, 2016, 04:50:33 PM

Just checked, the few bees are still on the limb and a little wad stuck on the robber screen in front of the hive.... I tried to get close and look at the ones on the screen, couldn't see anything that looked like a queen, but they are touchy, if I hang around long, one comes buzzing real close around my head with warning...

Beewildered61 · March 19, 2016, 04:55:45 PM

Quote from: GSF on March 19, 2016, 07:31:41 AM
Bewildered, Along the lines of what acebird said, there's a lot of things that could have happened to the queen other than the beek.

Yeah, it just seemed awful strange what he was doing, and then the next few weeks every time I looked for the queen I never found her, and that was when there was only one deep with 5 frames of bees. Way folks are now days, I get suspicious if something looks suspicious..... or as my grandad used to say, "If it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, it's prolly a duck."

Acebird · March 19, 2016, 07:17:10 PM

I can't find a queen. I don't even look for her as they say it is futile. Do you see larvae? Sooner or later they get big enough to see. They can only come from a queen.
Forget about whether this guy was trying to stiff you. Concentrate on your bees. They are more pleasing to your life. Hanging on to people that do you wrong will only guide you in the wrong direction. Divorce your anger. There are very smart and very experience beekeepers on this site that can help you be successful. They shy away from those that point the finger at someone else. Even if they have a ligament bleep.

Beewildered61 · March 19, 2016, 09:24:14 PM

Not hanging on to anything, was merely explaining why I thought there wasn't much brood... i.e the queen might not have been so great, as I was led to believe when I bought them. And this was all back in last summer when I got the bees, and just a couple of weeks ago, when I saw very little brood.... sorry, but I don't need a psychologist! :) I'm not putting someone on the spot, I know this guy is not on this forum, but I felt like I had to tell the story to point out where I am with this hive today.....

GSF · March 19, 2016, 09:43:55 PM

Hey B, can you spot eggs? If I see eggs I don't worry about a queen. Right now it escapes me but it takes x number of days for a larva to get certain sizes and then to be capped. You can count back and know there was a queen then.

Beewildered61 · March 19, 2016, 11:07:59 PM

thanks! But I haven't looked in it in about 2 weeks... and when I saw those two small spots of brood they were capped with no eggs around... that's why I was thinking, the queen wasn't doing so great.... Now, I am kinda scared to go in, like with my big hive that swarmed last week... I have went in after a swarm, and accidentally destroyed the queen egg because it was attached to the bottom of one frame and connected to another below it. So not sure what to do?

GSF · March 20, 2016, 07:26:11 AM

If you destroy the one and only queen cell and there's no eggs, just get a frame with eggs (without the queen) from the other hive.

Beewildered61 · March 22, 2016, 09:02:36 PM

Well, Sunday, I took a box and went and shook the bees off the limb, then went to the hive and brushed the ones stuck onto the front into the box. No queen seen anywhere, but I dropped them in the empty hive I had so at least they could warm themselves, and I still saw bees in and out of the hive. Yesterday, it was windy and colder, 58, and I didn't see any bees, but I thought, maybe if there isn't many bees in there, they are all trying to keep the brood warm. Today it's 70, and I still see no bees in and out, open up the hive and there are no bees. There are dead brood and ants, lots of pollen, no honey.
I think they ran out of food and the queen left and then died or something, even though I had a jar of sugar syrup mixed with honey 3 feet in front of the hive for the last 4 months... it made me sick... I hate when something like this happens to those poor girls...

BeeMaster2 · March 22, 2016, 10:12:50 PM

Sorry to hear that Bewildered.
You say you were feeding the bees honey and syrup 3' in front of the hive.
That raises 2 Major Red flags.
Where did you get the honey from? If you bought it in a store, there is a good chance that the honey is tainted with American Foul Brood. If it was from your bees it would bee OK.
Feeding your bees in front of your hive is a good way to cause robbing. One of the first things robbing bees like to do is kill the queen and disinfratiniz the bees. If you want to open feed your bees, be sure to place the Sugar Water at least 100 feet away from your hive. Keep in mind you are probably providing more food to someone else's bees than you are feeding your own bees.
Jim

GSF · March 23, 2016, 08:33:26 AM

100 feet - 100 yards; my bees will still go to robbing. 3 months? maybe the mixture had gone bad with the sugar water.

I bet you feel like you let them down, don't. A phrase I use to hear on here was "I ain't raising no welfare bees" There's nothing wrong with helping bees survive, unless it's the same bees every time.

ditto on the robbing. I feed through an inner cover that has a hole just the right size for a jar to be placed in. I use to use entrance feeders, also a good robbing generator.

Beewildered61 · March 23, 2016, 04:01:33 PM

thanks sawdstmakr, it was my bees honey from year before last that crystalized, so I just fed it back to them... yeah, there were a lot of bees at the feeder and that is where I kept seeing the black bees... but my property doesn't go far enough to put a feeder that far away, and I had a robbing screen on the front of the hive, with the opening only about 1/2", hoping that would prevent robbing.

thanks GSF, no the bees emptied the feeder every day, so it was always fresh... yep, I feel like I coulda, shoulda, etc... feel like it's my fault. I just had a piece of wax paper on top of the frames with sugar mixed with pollen substitute about a month ago, and it didn't look like they touched it, so I took it out. I've seen folks make a hole in the outer cover and wondered how that would work, but was worried it would let water in the hive. I got one of those Heart (used to be Freeman's) beetle trap bottom boards and the front porch tapers downward, so I can't sit a feeder on that, plus I had the robber screen on. I don't think I have anything to cut a hole as big as a jar in an inner cover.

Thing that really ticks me, is now I'm down to one hive that just swarmed, I'm pretty sure last week, and I saw clover and plum and pear blooming, the bees have quit coming to the feeder I had out, so I guess the flow is on and I am at a minimum. I didn't get any honey last year and had folks asking me about getting some last year and this year :( And I've been out of work since Jan., so sure could use that little bit of money! :(

Acebird · March 23, 2016, 08:37:58 PM

I haven't a clue what your skill set is but if you have the time you turn hours into dollars. Someone in the south needs help tending bees. It just might not be at the rate you are use to.

GSF · March 24, 2016, 09:19:18 AM

It wasn't until my 3 year and a dozen hives that I actually harvested surplus honey. Apiaries should be self sustaining as much as possible. As example; I had a hive get weak thus slow building up and another hive's queen ran out of eggs. So I combined, most likely it will now be a production hive. This year I plan to pull several queens and keep them in a castle for back up. Probably sell some as well. I just need to make sure they're awesome before I sell.

Beewildered61 · March 24, 2016, 10:53:49 AM

Acebird- I have mostly done factory work(QC) and the last 10 years working as a Quality Control guy in Aerospace. My problem is I am having back problems, been going to physical therapy once a week since Feb., I can't stand for more than 15-20 minutes or sit more than an hour, so my options are limited. Told the wife the other day, I wonder if I could go to the big farmers market and buy up some produce and set me up a stand in front of my house.... I also make home made soap and lip balm from all natural ingredients. I sold a lot at my last job, but can't seem to get "out there" here around town.

GSF- Yep, 2014 was my 3rd year and I got over 200 pounds of honey from my three hives. Now, I can't seem to keep three hives going! :( I went down the road I live on yesterday (I live just outside of town in the country) and put notices in every one's mailbox, if they see any low swarms to give me a call. Only about 15 people live on this road...

GSF · March 24, 2016, 04:23:14 PM

I went down the road I live on yesterday (I live just outside of town in the country) and put notices in every one's mailbox, if they see any low swarms to give me a call

...don't get mad when the post office tells you that you can't do that - no postage. I'm a letter carrier. Before I went to work with the post office I told the paper guy to just put my paper in "my" mailbox. He said he couldn't. It was explained to me like this; You own the mailbox, the post office owns the space inside.

You probably won't hear a word if you live out in the country.

Beewildered61 · March 24, 2016, 08:41:06 PM

Well thanks for the info... but I doubt they will say anything... When we first moved here there was someone down the road wanting to build a subdivision on their land with over 400 houses and there was a retired banker that lived in an old plantation place at the end of the road... He went and put notices in everyone's mailbox warning them of an upcoming meeting with the county commissioners and was trying to get everyone together to stop the subdivision.... And when we first moved here, I was so happy to get out of the 'hood we had been living in, I walked down the road and put Christmas cards in everyone's mailbox! lol! I put the notices in about 1:30-2:00, the mail-lady comes around 11:30-12:00, so she had already delivered and folks hadn't gotten off work yet and got the mail, hope they got the notices out before today.... good info to know though