Post by jazmyne on Jul 12, 2010 21:46:41 GMT -7
My hive swarmed two weeks ago and now I'm not sure if I have a queen or not. I would really appreciate some advice on the situation. I was in the hive Sunday afternoon, the bees were behaving normally but they were a little more aggressive than usual (I’m not sure if it’s due to a potentially missing queen or if it’s the time of season.) They were building new comb, but there were no eggs and I couldn’t find my queen.
Here's the timeline:
June 27 - Hive swarms, wasn't able to catch the swarm
July 4 - opened the hive for the first time since the swarm. Found 7 swarm cells, one had clearly hatched but all of the other swarm cells were still capped. I cleaned the rest out and all queens were dead – some were clearly older than others. I also discovered that the hive was honey-bound; of all the frames, two were mostly drawn and filled with sugar syrup and 2 were 70/30 sugar syrup to nectar/pollen. The rest were full of nectar/pollen or brood. I still had quite a bit of capped brood at this time and even witnessed a few bees hatching. I added my only western to the top to give them a place to start building until I could get another deep or at least some replacement frames. Decided I’d rather save the hive than have honey.
July 7 - Replaced 4 sugar-syrup frames in the deeps with 4 empty frames. Found 5 more swarm cells. I assumed these were ones I missed previously since they were the same dark color and sealed. Didn't think there was any way the new queen would be creating swarm cells and not laying other eggs. I cleaned these out.
July 11 - Two full weeks after the hive swarmed, the bees are drawing out the new frames I put in, all of the brood has hatched and the cells are empty. No new eggs, and still can't find my queen.
This coming Sunday will be three weeks to the day the hive swarmed. I’m thinking if I still don’t have any eggs I should order a queen and hope someone’s got one.
Comments? Suggestions? Advice?
Thanks so much in advance.
Here's the timeline:
June 27 - Hive swarms, wasn't able to catch the swarm
July 4 - opened the hive for the first time since the swarm. Found 7 swarm cells, one had clearly hatched but all of the other swarm cells were still capped. I cleaned the rest out and all queens were dead – some were clearly older than others. I also discovered that the hive was honey-bound; of all the frames, two were mostly drawn and filled with sugar syrup and 2 were 70/30 sugar syrup to nectar/pollen. The rest were full of nectar/pollen or brood. I still had quite a bit of capped brood at this time and even witnessed a few bees hatching. I added my only western to the top to give them a place to start building until I could get another deep or at least some replacement frames. Decided I’d rather save the hive than have honey.
July 7 - Replaced 4 sugar-syrup frames in the deeps with 4 empty frames. Found 5 more swarm cells. I assumed these were ones I missed previously since they were the same dark color and sealed. Didn't think there was any way the new queen would be creating swarm cells and not laying other eggs. I cleaned these out.
July 11 - Two full weeks after the hive swarmed, the bees are drawing out the new frames I put in, all of the brood has hatched and the cells are empty. No new eggs, and still can't find my queen.
This coming Sunday will be three weeks to the day the hive swarmed. I’m thinking if I still don’t have any eggs I should order a queen and hope someone’s got one.
Comments? Suggestions? Advice?
Thanks so much in advance.
