Odd hive inspection

NeilTheCop · April 30, 2015, 07:21:53 PM

It's been 21 days since I installed the package into my top bar hive. Three days after the instal I checked and the queen was out of her cage, but I couldn't find her anywhere.
On checking today I found that comb was being drawn on five of the bars but no sign of the queen, no brood, no eggs, a little uncapped honey, but oddly quite a few capped drone cells and plenty of drones!!
So I'm assuming that the queen did at some point lay the drone eggs, but nothing else.
Is this cause for concern?

don2 · April 30, 2015, 08:01:13 PM

I would say yes. You have a drone laying queen, she was not bred, or you have laying workers. I have never had a package but this does not sound right with any new colony. jmo. d2

D Coates · May 01, 2015, 01:10:52 PM

Yes. The hive is apparently queenless and assuming you can get a queen in there ASAP there will be no replacement bees emerging for 3 weeks. Do you have another hive you can get some eggs and larva from? If there's no queen (and her pheromones) laying workers will start up in a coupe weeks. Once they start up getting a queen introduced can be challenging. Open brood can shut the laying workers down and allow for a successful queen introduction or they can make their own queen.

Hang in there. One of my first packages did exactly that and I wasn't able to do anything about it that worked. Don't take it personally and keep trying.

NeilTheCop · May 01, 2015, 09:20:25 PM

Unfortunately this is my only hive. The good news is that the local seed company who supply the bees contacted their supplier who are shipping a new queen which should be here Tuesday. They have also put me at the top of the contact list for the next swarm

rdy-b · May 04, 2015, 05:27:18 AM

its great you are geting a new queen--but heres my take--
your bees where started without comb-this slows things down--yes i understand its a top bar hive
this makes the feeding a bit more concernening-bagy feeders on top bars works--what else is there
new hive needs two gallons over 40 day period--to build and store six frames-so from what you have posted is thee even room for the queen to lay--something layed the drone cells--lots of times when this is ocurring -the bees are hedgegeing there beats for colony survivale if the queen cant make it a drone will--so heres what i think needs
you got to feed the first colony you startrted --get some comb built-i think your queen layed the drone egges
because there was no room for a normal patteren --top bars are tough-they need extra care--your drones
came from your pacage -at 21 days and no comb --nothing that the queen layed will come to surface intill
a month-and with no comb drawn -the bees cant do a thing--thats why top bars are hard to start

NeilTheCop · May 20, 2015, 09:39:30 PM

Well it's bad news followed by more bad news.
The new queen went in 2 weeks ago, I checked after 3 days and she was out of the cage so I thought, leave her alone to do her job.
I checked today and the queen is still in the hive but no eggs or brood but plenty of drone cells!!!!
The other bad news is that I got a call to remove a swarm, yeahhh. But when I got to the address it was a 2 year old colony of very aggressive bees who had set up home in an outside spa that was in a storage area. The only way to get to the spa was to remove the side of the storage building, which I wasn't prepared to do. The 'owner' of the bees said that no one wanted to collect the bees. Wonder why.
So here I am at the end of May waiting for my hive to die

so that I can use it as another bait hive.

Dallasbeek · May 21, 2015, 11:41:38 AM

Time for another new queen, looks like -- maybe from a different queen breeder. Maybe give her one more week, but then....

NeilTheCop · May 21, 2015, 02:54:08 PM

Problem is the package is now over 6 weeks old and no replacements have hatched in that time. Even if the new queen begins laying the same day there will not be enough workers to feed the larvae

10framer · May 21, 2015, 03:12:20 PM

yeah, it's more likely time to start over. this is why it's better to have more than one hive. if one is failing you can steal resources from the other.

Dallasbeek · May 21, 2015, 04:06:57 PM

Quote from: 10framer on May 21, 2015, 03:12:20 PM
yeah, it's more likely time to start over. this is why it's better to have more than one hive. if one is failing you can steal resources from the other.

Is that more difficult with a top bar hive?

10framer · May 21, 2015, 11:01:18 PM

they still have removable comb dallas. should be the same, add a frame of brood or two to the failing hive.

NeilTheCop · May 22, 2015, 12:32:35 PM

The top bar hives, although at first glance a good idea, seem to have problems with getting a package successfully introduced.
I downloaded the plans for the Langstroth hive box and I'm off to Home Depot for some 1 x 8 boards and a new blade for my table saw.
Any members of the forum in the Southern New Mexico (Roswell) area have, or know of any, swarms, nucs or packages for sale?

As Sir Winston Churchill once said "The definition of success, is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm"

drjeseuss · May 22, 2015, 12:44:33 PM

If you have a table saw, and a bit of experience running it, it's quite trivial to build a lang hive from 1-by lumber. I've enjoyed doing this about as much as having the bees. The best part, if you're able to do this kind of work... if you find a flaw or wish for an improvement, include the fix in your next build. I've been interested to build and try a top bar hive, but the langs are doing well enough, I'm not ready to make the jump. I'd think top bar would be easier to start if you had other hives to get resources from (new queen cells for example). I see issues with running my langs, but generally like them. As a suggestion since you are just starting out, keep to all mediums. I'm sure others here will disagree with this, but I'm certain (for me) this is the way to go. All equipment is interchangable, no issues moving boxes up or down in the stack, etc. It just gives more options. Once you are up and running, it should be a simple matter to produce your own 'package' of bees to try the TBH again.

NeilTheCop · May 23, 2015, 10:03:17 AM

Thanks, it is my intention to keep to just mediums as you advise.

Pam G · May 29, 2015, 03:47:21 AM

I had this same problem with my first and only hive last year. This year I ordered 3 packages and have a swarm capture. If you have trouble with your only hive, it is real trouble. The good folks on here really mean it when they advice you to have multiple hives.