Neophyte with Son

DrKurtG · July 10, 2007, 04:11:49 PM

Hello all. I am very new to this hobby. In fact, the one hive that we have was a Christmas gift to my son. Here's my set-up: we have one brood chamber and two supers. We ordered an Italian Queen and 3 lbs of bees which arrived in mid-April. Everything was going along great until about three weeks ago. We noticed a drastic down turn in the activity and number of bees around the hive. When we checked the brood chamber, we saw between 8 and 12 opened Queen cells and we don't think we have a Queen in the hive. So, assuming that they swarmed, and my honey season is shot-to-heck, I have ordered another hive consisting of the same set up with the intentions of re-Queening and splitting the hive in preparation for next year. Does this sound reasonable to you? If not, what would you recommend we do?

Thanks in advance for the help...

Kathyp · July 10, 2007, 04:22:18 PM

where are you?

you usually don't get to much honey the first year, so not so great a loss.

you may very well have a new queen that has not started laying yet. wait a bit and check again.

two hives are better than one. :-)

some of the other stuff depends on where you are located.

DrKurtG · July 10, 2007, 04:26:28 PM

OOPS, sorry that's important info I left off. We are in southwestern Virginia about 70 miles from the North Carolina Border. Thank you very much for your reply. How long should I wait before re-Queening?

sean · July 10, 2007, 04:58:13 PM

how long ago did you see the opened queen cells?

DrKurtG · July 10, 2007, 05:25:09 PM

We saw the opened Queen cells about 2 weeks ago...

DrKurtG · July 10, 2007, 08:12:08 PM

OK. Having poured over just about every post that has anything to do with my situation, I went out and rechecked my hive. The bees are active within the brood chamber but very little activity in the one super. I do have a Queen excluder in place. Did not see any larvae or eggs in any of the brood chamber frames. Saw honey in about 80% of the cells but they appeared to only be about half-full. Observed lots of capped drone cells.

My plan: Wait until Sunday. If eggs or larvae are not present, I will order a new Queen.

Kathyp · July 10, 2007, 08:17:27 PM

where is your queen excluder? do you only have one deep as a brood chamber? if that is the case, i would take out the excluder and add another deep (or the equivalent). if 80% is full of honey, you will not have room for the new queen to do her thing. in fact, if you have a queen in there now, that might be part of your problem.

Moonshae · July 10, 2007, 10:46:09 PM

I agree with kathy, you shouldn't be using an excluder and a super until you have a larger brood area. Add a second deep, and plan on a honey harvest in the spring. First year buildup is very demanding on a package, best to let them have the fruits of their labor to themselves the first season.

DrKurtG · July 10, 2007, 10:49:49 PM

OK. That is what we shall do. Thank you very, very much for the help and advice.

Kurt

DrKurtG · July 16, 2007, 08:28:04 PM

OK, so I ordered a second deep along with another complete hive. In the meantime, I removed the excluder and put a super on top just so that they would have some "elbow" room. I did this three days ago. Yesterday and today I have notice a huge change in the activity of the bees. They are really active. It seems like a cloud of bees going into and out of the hive. Oh, I also fed them 1:1 sugar syrup. I have not ordered a Queen yet but am now not sure that I will. I think that I read that a new Queen is very difficult to identify and that she appears like a worker until she mates and starts egg laying. I'm hoping that she is in there and that I will see some sign within a week or two.

KONASDAD · July 17, 2007, 11:02:12 AM

w/ all of those open queen cells, wait and be patient. I went queenlees for a while b/c of a number of factors. They collect more honey b/c no brood to rear. This could be benefit if it plays out well as you'll have more stores and the queen when she get going will quickly lay enough eggs to get ready for fall flow. Dont expect honye first year. The bees usually need it more.

Scadsobees · July 17, 2007, 11:39:24 AM

Ditto on that, Konasdad, hang in there a week or two.

Virgin queens are still unique looking, but are quick and runny and will be anywhere in a hive, whereas when mated they are a bit slower and more deliberate and tend to stay near or in the brood nest.

Other than that, sounds like you are on track, don't feed if you are expecting any honey in the supers. It is your first year, so your honey season is already shot. Don't plan on much this year, maybe nipping a frame or two.

Rick