Help...I need a queen in Massachusetts!!!!

gaucho10 · October 12, 2008, 10:29:17 AM

August 6, 2008---Hive #1 doing excellent with 2 brood chambers and three med. honey suppers. I checked them for queen cells just before going on one week vacation.

August 14, 2008---Arrived home from vacation and next morning I went to check on bees. A swarm started to form high up on pine tree. Unable to retrieve. Very Large Swarm! Checked hive #1 and noticed 14-16 sealed queen cells. Left everything alone.

September 11, 2008---Inspected hive and found laying queen with brood in various stages of development.

September 13, 2008---Hive #1 knocked over by coyotes. I noticed this after getting home late that night. Frames and boxes all over the place. I don't think it was a bear because only honey frames from med. suppers were destroyed and brood were not touched. It was raining and bees were vicious as I tried to flip brood chamber over. Managed to get only bottom brood chamber on bottom board. Will fix problem next morning at dawn.

September 14, 2008---Replaced all equipment back on bottom board.

For next few days bees were vicious!!! Very!!!

September 19, 2008---Installed electric fence around bee yard.

September 21, 2008---Inspected hive and noticed that they had built and sealed 3 queen cells. I could not find original queen. These queen cells did not look large enough. I left them alone to hatch.

October 6, 2008---Inspected hive and found NO BROOD whatsoever, lots of stored honey and pollen and NO QUEEN.

To late to find a queen in the area but I was hoping to see if someone around here has a weak hive or a queen to keep my colony going? I will travel if not tooooooo far. You can email me with info at gaucho10charter.net

Jim134 · October 12, 2008, 11:10:50 AM

You may find a queen it

www.warmcolorsapiary.com/ South Deefield MA.

www.nebees.com Tyngsboro MA.

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

contactme_11 · October 12, 2008, 06:29:19 PM

Quote from: Jim 134 on October 12, 2008, 11:10:50 AM

www.warmcolorsapiary.com/ South Deefield MA.

Dan is probably your best shot.

Moonshae · October 14, 2008, 11:10:17 PM

If there are no drones in your area, the queen cells won't help. Are there still drones in your hive? That'll be a good indicator for the area.

gaucho10 · October 15, 2008, 12:14:58 AM

Moonshae,

I still have quite a few drones in my other hive which is also doing really good with lots of brood, honey, pollen, etc. But it is getting too long for the hive to be w/o a queen. I don't want a laying worker to develop so I think I am going to merge both hives. I will have 4 brood chambers loaded with bees, honey and pollen. Both bottom brood chambers from my 2 nd. hive have lots of brood. I just hope they don't decide to swarm. Weather is getting colder but we still have Indian summer this week. I will merge them tomorrow just before I leave on vacation for four days. I will see how they do on my return. By the way...I did check with local beekeepers and they don't have any available queens at present.

WhipCityBeeMan · October 17, 2008, 04:52:14 PM

How did it work out?

gaucho10 · October 28, 2008, 04:59:12 AM

Merged both hives with two layers of newspaper in between. Did not notice any problems so far. It's been over a week, bottom hive using bottom entrance and top hive using inner cover entrance. It appears to be fine so far. Bees have been flying about, considering the warm weather we have been having during the past few days.