Whew..I think..??

[poka-bee]

 Checked the girls today.  They have been dragging out the dead all week, fewer & fewer as the days go by. Some orientation flights but not the #'s that I had before.  I didn't see the queens or eggs but did see larva, some smaller & some almost filling the cell but not standing upright.  The blue team have 2 boxes (8frm meds)of comb,then the top 1/2 of a 3rd.with pollen & nectar (sugar water) not a whole lot of brood, some scattered capped in darker & lighter. They lined up like little soldiers on the frames staring up at me...kind creepy having so many looking @ me from both sides of each frame... :shock:  They didn't do anything though but watch, some bumps. Green had less bees but did have some brood & capped also different colors from light to dark tan.  They weren't near as aggressive as the last inspection.  I took everything apart, looked for anything gross like rotting bees/larva, smelled everything.  Green had very few dead left on the SBB, blues had a tennis ball clump of icky things...bees & bits of ivory colored stuff, probably dead larva/pupae?  I'm thinking the queens made it if there are different sized larva?  I hope anyways.  If there are no small larva next check I'll order new queens. Hopefully it won't be too late in the season to salvage. There is Olympic that have NW queens, russian X survivor type stock, Brian mentioned it once so that's where I'll get em as they are more used to our whacky weather than CA ones! I want to thank everyone for their posts to each other, I would totally freak out not having all the information & different solutions to everyones different problems!  From the amount of dead bees piled up & dug out of the bottom of the hive I thought I had lost em all..I still have way more than I started with. :-D  Jody

[Cindi]

Jody, sounds like things may be OK.  Eggs are upright when they are laid, as the egg matures it falls over, is that how I should put that description.  It leans over and is no longer upright and then turns into the larvae that looks like the small letter C, and then matures, laying flat, curled in the C shape and then gets bigger.

Wait, don't order queens yet, I am sure that the queens are OK, they are the last to go, as they are the most important part of the colony.  THe bees will feed her right up to the very end of the food stuff.

I lost a great number of my bees in one of my strong colonies.  It had too many bees, not enough food.  I have been feeding a lot lately, I will still keep feeding for a couple more feedings.  I can't take any chances, so far have not lost any completely yet.  I have 10, going well, but they certainly need the human intervention.  With these past few days of sunshine and today sunning also, the bees will be getting out to get lots of food, there is food there, in my gardens, the phacelia and borage are going big time strong, as are many other things, it is just the weather that they need to keep getting out.  Good luck, wait a bit for the queeny stuff, have that most wonderful and beautiful day, love our sun shine, I bet you are having it too.  Cindi