Wk 5 check on new hive

akwusmc · May 09, 2016, 10:15:44 AM

All,

Checked on the hive Saturday (my daughter helped me ... she loves my bees more than I do!) AND HERE'S WHAT i FOUND:

The second box (installed on wk 3, after most of the first box was drawn into comb, per Beekeeping for Dummies) was not drawn out nearly as much as I thought it might. Wk 4 found that one of the frames had been started, but from the bottom. I left it there, and in its'ce was a mess in Wk 5. Apparently the bees drew the comb further up, but it fell and folded onto itself, falling onto the neighboring frame where the bees continues to build. That was a mess, and I wound up cutting off about half the comb and rubber-banding the rest top keep it straight.

The bottom box had a mix of capped worker and drone brood (to me, a lot of drone brood), and I saw eggs (but not the queen). Lots of nectar/honey. None of the frames exhibit the 'standard' pattern of brood in the center, and crescents of pollen and honey above. We did get to see some drones emerging from their cells ... that was fun!

All in all, the colony looks to be doing ok ... I pulled the feeder off last checkup because they seemed to have stopped taking it. Nothing looks 'normal' but I continue to fall back on the knowledge that they've been doing this a lot longer than I have!

aw

BeeMaster2 · May 09, 2016, 12:48:53 PM

AW,
This does not sound right. At this point you should not have a bunch of drones hatching out. Were they in worker cells or were they in Drone cells? Are the drones rather small? Drone cells are larger than worker cells and usually added around the edges unless you add an empty frame into a hive that has all worker foundation.
It sounds like you have an un-mated queen or a laying worker hive. My first hive had a defective queen, her wings were deformed which means she was never able to make her maiden flights. It was a drone producing hive and even after I tried to replace the queen, It still failed due to SHB's.
Go back to whoever supplied the hive for a replacement.
Jim

akwusmc · May 09, 2016, 02:18:32 PM

Jim,

I have drone cells and worker cells ... all of the drones I saw emerging were coming out of drone cells.

AFAIK, I've had capped worker brood. Perhaps I need to get into the bottom box again in the morning and shake all the bees off as I inspect, and maybe take a few pictures so you don't have to rely on my poor descriptive abilities!

aw

GSF · May 09, 2016, 02:56:21 PM

When you say box are you talking about a package? If so you may be looking at the results of a late laying misfiring queen. She may have it straightened out by now or like Jim said it could be laying workers.

akwusmc · May 09, 2016, 05:13:10 PM

GSF, sorry about my imprecise terms ...

The colony was started from a package that didn't have a queen in it. I got a replacement queen the next day and hived them that afternoon.

When I say 'box' I'm talking about the lower hive body (I suppose you'd call it a brood box). I believe in wk 3 I asked about all the drone comb, thinking that the bees might be wanting to supercede this queen, but I noted that I did have capped worker brood and no queen cells (that I could see).

PhilK · May 09, 2016, 11:41:18 PM

It's spring for you guys right? Don't bees increase their amounts of drones when swarming season is on? Spring is mating time so I would assume there'd be lots of drones?

GSF · May 10, 2016, 08:20:54 AM

Hey aw, How many weeks since installation of the hive or queen replacement?

Acebird · May 10, 2016, 08:24:25 AM

Quote from: akwusmc on May 09, 2016, 05:13:10 PM
The colony was started from a package that didn't have a queen in it. I got a replacement queen the next day and hived them that afternoon.

Queen cells will appear if the queen is not up to par. Seeing worker brood is a good thing because it means at one point there was viable larvae to make a queen. Hopefully they weren't her last ones.

BeeMaster2 · May 10, 2016, 12:13:01 PM

Quote from: PhilK on May 09, 2016, 11:41:18 PM
It's spring for you guys right? Don't bees increase their amounts of drones when swarming season is on? Spring is mating time so I would assume there'd be lots of drones?

Not when it is a new hive with insufficient bee to support the have plus the drones.
Jim

akwusmc · May 11, 2016, 10:46:21 AM

Quote from: GSF on May 10, 2016, 08:20:54 AM
Hey aw, How many weeks since installation of the hive or queen replacement?

GSF, it's been 5 weeks ... the package was picked up on April 1, and when I went to hive them that afternoon, there was a lone worker in the queen cage... no queen. I called the apiary where I got the package from and they told me to come and get another queen (which I did first thing the next morning). I hived the package and the new queen that afternoon (the 2nd).