bee are in the box but ?????????

[lee]

put out 3 package today.they look like they were in there a long time. i seen no queens and the cage,s was open but i did see this before i open one of the package . what is this.??????

[Jay]

It just looks like they started building comb in there. That's normal.

[SherryL]

That's the shape the bees start building honeycomb in .  It's sort of a roundish or football shape.  When you check on them in the hive a week or so from now, you'll see the same sort of shape forming on the wax foundations.  

If the queen was not in the cage, then they've released her.  If you asked (or paid) to have the queen marked, she should have a blue dot on her back.  Again, next time you check your hive, you can look for her, she'll probably be on one of the frames toward the center of the hive box.

Hope that helps!

sherry

[fuzzybeekeeper]

The color of the dot is set up in 5 year intervals.  You can see the international code system at:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2162.html

That being said, I'm going to call Weaver tomorrow and find out why my queens are marked in red!!!

[TwT]

Weaver should mark all thier queens red, just to show how hot they probably will be !!! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH    :D

[Kris^]

That being said, I'm going to call Weaver tomorrow and find out why my queens are marked in red!!!

My queen arrived last year marked white.  This year they are blue.  Different suppliers.

-- Kris

[beemaster]

I know a lot of places won't clip or mark queens any more - I think they know they have us by the cookies when it comes to queens these days. That comb is common in packages where the hive needs to start building a home in order for the colony to survive - comb for egg laying to raise the next generation of bees in.

If she isn't marked, you could start looking for eggs or larva in that comb - if you don't see any, and you don't see the queen, she could be in the dead bee pile at the bottom of the box.

Hope everything works out okay.

NOTE: if I did find any eggs or larva in the box (and no queen) don't miss the opertunity to make a new queen from the eggs or larva. Use the shipping cage as a temporary queen raising hive / observation hive and in 3 weeks you will have a spare or replacement queen JUST in case.

Hope it isn't too late to keep that comb intact or the cells protected by workers. Let us know when/if you start seening eggs in the hive or find the queen.

If you have warm weather or are getting poor flights and low activity in the colony, you are very likely queenless and need to do something (maybe MERGE the bees) with another colony UNTIL you can get a new queen. Good luck!

[taw]

Weaver should mark all thier queens red, just to show how hot they probably will be !!! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH    :D

Heh. I have Weaver All Stars showing up any day now. I will let ya'll know how hot they are.
/me crosses his fingers.

[pardee]

Seems that Weavers mark there queens different colors different days, the three packages I got two weeks ago the queens were marked white, got three more packages coming this week will be interesting to see what color they will be. If they are not going to follow the international color code for years, they may as well mark them blaze orange that way they will show up better.

[manowar422]

I too purchased my 3# package from R. Weaver,
and the queen was marked with a white dot.

[pardee]

Perhaps I should add something about the R. Weavers the fact that they don’t follow the international color code for marking queens is really not important. What is important is that they give great service, and back up there product. The fact that they have been in business for 114 years has to say something for that. And I will continue to give them my business.

[lee]

i got my bees from groeb frams. i dont know if they mark them. i will find out tommrow. im going to get a 3#pkg this time i will ask if they are mark thanks for all the info. :D

[TwT]

Heh. I have Weaver All Stars showing up any day now. I will let ya'll know how hot they are.
/me crosses his fingers.

TAW, I heard that the first queens are most the time nice but when the suppercede or swarm the 2nd generation can be alittle hot , and I heard it happens with there Buckfast line mostly. ask MB, he just loved the last Buckfast line he got.  :twisted: BAHAHAHAHA!!  


Buckfast Bee's Say ( shhhhhhhh, be very-very quiet, we hunting MB's )  


:lol:  :lol:  :lol:  

[fuzzybeekeeper]

Weaver should mark all thier queens red, just to show how hot they probably will be !!! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

TWT-  I hived my 6 packages from Weaver's on April 9 (2 1/2 weeks ago) and I have been in them AT LEAST every other day (yes, I am addicted!!!!) and I have yet to light my smoker.  All I use is a spray of sugar water.  I'm glad I am fully suited out (It's ok if you call me a whimp...I'd rather not get stung!) but the bees have been very docile and calm.  Perhaps as you said, they will get ornery the second or third generation, but I love them for now.  I got their All-American breed.

Weavers has bent over backwards to help me and I appreciate them.  It's also nice that I am only 20 miles from them!

Fuzzybeekeeper

[Jay]

TWT-  I hived my 6 packages from Weaver's on April 9 (2 1/2 weeks ago) and I have been in them AT LEAST every other day (yes, I am addicted!!!!)
Fuzzybeekeeper

You're not giving your bees a chance to recover and do the things they need to do to be bees before you're back in the hive again. Every time you go into the hive, you set their production back three days (or so). The most you should go into your hives is maybe once every week and a half or two. This gives them a chance to recover and begin the tasks they left off the last time you opened the hive. :D

[fuzzybeekeeper]

Thanks, Jay.

I knew that smoking the hive disrupts them because they eat honey and get ready to "abondon ship".  I thought that plain sugar water would have a lot less effect on them since they would clean themselves and get on with what they are doing.

Any comments or am I way off base?

Maybe I can just open one hive every other day so I can get my "fix".  My wife has sure been understanding so far, but I'm afraid she may put her food down real soon if I don't get some other work done around the house.

Fuzzybeekeeper

[Michael Bush]

Smoking heavily (which I don't recommend) will disrupt a hive more than necessary.  Smoking lightly disrupts the hive less than a defensive response by the hive.  I think most people who decide smoking a hive is too disruptive are smoking way too much.

A couple of puffs in the door and wait a full minute and a couple of puffs in the top as you remove the cover is plenty.

People have been using smoke to calm bees for literally thousands of years.

[taw]

Weaver should mark all thier queens red, just to show how hot they probably will be !!! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH    :D

Heh. I have Weaver All Stars showing up any day now. I will let ya'll know how hot they are.
/me crosses his fingers.

To respond to myself. My R-Weaver All American's showed up. I installed them, and all is well. They were as calm as can be, but I did screw up and get zapped in the back of the neck (I did *one last thing* before I left them and "spooked" an already disturbed hive when I had no veil on - idiot! :))

Anyway. Packages were installed. Bees were nice, pretty, and now are happily "doing their thing".

[lee]

we had some snow today . :(  tommrow at is going to bee in the 60s man a heat wave. :D  i will check on them for the frist time in 4 days to see how they are doing.

[taw]

Weaver should mark all thier queens red, just to show how hot they probably will be !!! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH    :D

Heh. I have Weaver All Stars showing up any day now. I will let ya'll know how hot they are.
/me crosses his fingers.

To respond to myself. My R-Weaver All American's showed up. I installed them, and all is well. They were as calm as can be, but I did screw up and get zapped in the back of the neck (I did *one last thing* before I left them and "spooked" an already disturbed hive when I had no veil on - idiot! :))

Anyway. Packages were installed. Bees were nice, pretty, and now are happily "doing their thing".

Ok... it has been 1.5 months now. The R Weaver All Americans are kicking butt, but like TwT mentioned earlier the next generations are hotter than the first. They are a lot hotter than the Italians I have worked with in other folk's apiaries. I may call R Weaver up about this. This "rumor" of hot bees from them is rapidly becoming less and less of a rumor. A local commercial beekeeper used to use all Buckfast and he has since switched to Italian for that very reason: hot bees from R Weaver. Now, I don't want our experiences to hurt their business - they are well respected and are probably working very hard against the AFB. I only have two hives.The bees are not unworkable (not AFB-ish). These bees are kicking butt in production (though one hive is behind - they decided to supercede), it's just that they are noticably hotter and I can only work gloveless for a short period of time. Both my wife and I have been stung through our suits and I end up pulling a bunch of stingers out of my gloves, etc.

I am *not* going to requeen unless it keeps getting worse and worse. Will watch and see. It also depends on how often ol' girl is stung, since her help out there is much appreciated. :)

I will keep y'all posted.