Please help...crazy scenario

derekNGA · May 25, 2016, 04:03:14 PM

New bee keeper. Two hives. Installed bees in last Friday. Hive one is doing good. Hive two is not. Hive two has been being robbed by hive one. Hive two lost its queen. I have a new queen ordered. I found queen cells being built in hive two. I found eggs in hive two. So assuming a laying worker. Im reading that if there are laying workers, a new queen is guaranteed to be killed. What to do with new queen and the robbing happening to hive 2. Is it just doomed and let things take its course or is there a good plan b,c,d, and so on...I'll do what it takes. Ideas appreciated. Yes, hive two is definately being robbed. I got up this am before sunrise and plugged entrance. An hour after sun rise, the hive was covered in bees trying to get in.

iddee · May 25, 2016, 04:15:03 PM

No laying worker. Queen was present within 3 days from today. The eggs came from her. Keep them plugged and move them several miles for a week, or give them ventilation and water and keep them plugged for 3 days. Then install a robbing screen.

KeyLargoBees · May 25, 2016, 04:58:39 PM

Are you sure queen was killed? As in you rolled her accidentally or is it an assumption because you didn't see her during an inspection? If these are from packages it is becoming increasingly common for package bees to supercede the queen they are shipped with. I went through a similar panic attack experience my first year....and if thats the case you almost have to let naure take its course.

If there is any chance the queen is still present.....or if those queen cells are far enough along hey arent goign to accept your new ordered queen.....you cant just add a new caged queen into the hive because they wont believe they are queenless...ask me how I know :-P

derekNGA · May 25, 2016, 04:59:03 PM

Thank you! Ill do as you suggested. Queen here hopefully tomorrow. I do have a little screen made up to block the entrance, so they are getting air flow. Thanks again. Makes me feel much better!

OldMech · May 26, 2016, 08:02:44 PM

If they are robbing, the easiest way to stop it is to reduce the entrance to a one to two inch opening, and then put something across the front.. if you have a robbing screen, that IS the best to use, if not, anything.. a piece of plywood that makes them go to the side to get out and away.. Robbing bees have to ZIP past the guard bees..
If you watch them, you will see this happen.. Putting something across the entrance will not give them the ability to "zip" past the guard bees, because they have to turn to get in, and that slows them down..

Laying workers take a couple weeks or more to get started. They have to be without queen pheromone, and without brood pheromone for a specific amount of time before their own ovaries begin to develop. When this happens, it is uaully laying WORKERS and not "A" laying worker.. a laying worker can produce one, to two eggs a day, so it takes several of them for you to see three, four, five or more eggs per cell. Often laying workers lay on the cell walls because they cant reach the bottom of the cell as easily..
Your doing fine, keep asking questions, it will all get a bit easier as time passes!
KLB asked if you were certain the queen was killed????

Acebird · May 27, 2016, 08:37:57 AM

Quote from: derekNGA on May 25, 2016, 04:03:14 PM
New bee keeper. Two hives. Installed bees in last Friday. Hive one is doing good. Hive two is not. Hive two has been being robbed by hive one. Hive two lost its queen. I have a new queen ordered.

The popular opinion is to get two hives when you first start. It is all wonderful when it works and not so much when it doesn't. This is all too common a scenario which makes starting out expensive. I can almost guarantee the good advice the OP is going to get but it is ALL beyond his experience level. Hopefully something will work out and it doesn't get more expensive.

I just have one question, if robbing started a week ago and the queen is gone how can the hive still exist?

alan.stukenholtz · May 27, 2016, 08:54:33 AM

I started with two packages and most of the bees all went to one package. There was maybe 1000 bees left in the one and no queen that I could find. Week later I noticed 1 emergency queen cell. Not sure where they got the baby, but now there is a queen in that hive although not many bees. Installed a third package into another hive because I wanted to maintain at least two. I would say another 1000 bees decided to make the weak hive their home. Just waiting to see how nature takes care of this. May end up with two or three who knows. Installing two packages at the same time is bad advise, if I had to do it again, I'd start them seperately

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OldMech · May 27, 2016, 10:30:19 AM

I have started 20 packages side by side. The reason the bees may migrate is because one of the queens does not put off good pheromones. They will usually be replaced (superseded) by the bees not long after they are hived.
Once they have started well and have a full box drawn out I will equalize the hives, either by swapping hive positions or moving capped brood. Once they are all about the same level they are left to build on their own.

GSF · May 31, 2016, 01:22:35 PM

Hey dereknga,

Are you feeding these packages? If so, how are you feeding them? If it's an entrance feeder then I'd bet that's what kicked off the robbing. I feed through the inner cover with a jar.