🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[drstratton]

I just saw this on the home page! I don't know how they choose what they will use for featured content?

 

[Baymule]

Congratulations! Your bees are featured for all to see!

 

[drstratton]

Well, I think we have a problem. We were going to do an inspection this weekend, but things happened and we didn't get it done. When I pulled my varroa boards this morning, I think I found a couple of wax moth larvae. One was dead, but one was still slightly moving. Hopefully that means the bees are cleaning them out. This is on my #1 hive, which has always been very strong. I didn't see anything like that on my last inspection. I have to take a friend to the Dr today, but not until this afternoon. Hopefully I will have time to get into the hive this morning. It's 59°, coolest morning we've had for a couple of months. Hoping it warms up quickly and the bees head out to take care of business.
Definitely not what I wanted to find at the end of the season. Hoping the bees are doing their job and it's not a total infestation.

 

[drstratton]

We saw good and bad.
Just got out of the hive. I didn't see any wax moth activity, which is good. The bad, I didn't see any fresh activity from the queen. We saw some older larvae and lots of capped brood. We also saw lots of empty drawn comb in the bottom deep. Zero eggs. I'm afraid we lost our queen.
There was one supercedure cell, but I didn't see larvae in it. No queen cells.
The bees weren't acting too crazy.
We will give it a week, check again for queen cells. If we don't see any eggs, we might try to combine with the swarm or package hive.
Lots of capped honey and lots of bees in the 2nd deep and the supers. Not as many in the bottom deep.

I see something in this, but it doesn't look like larvae.

Still some brood in the first super. a lot of them were emerging.

Taking a little break, then we'll check the other hives.

 

[SageHill]

YIPES!!!
So is that big cell one like there should be a queen developing? Guess I'm more asking do the queens to be have special cells?
If the queen from that hive is MIA could that be a reason that your bees have been "spicy" lately??

 

[Mini Horses]

If you dont

 

[drstratton]

YIPES!!!
So is that big cell one like there should be a queen developing? Guess I'm more asking do the queens to be have special cells?
If the queen from that hive is MIA could that be a reason that your bees have been "spicy" lately??

I was attributing the spiciness to the time of year, but yes that can be one reason. They were actually fairly calm until right at the end of our inspection.

Yes, queens require a larger cell. It will actually be bigger than the one shown right now. It will be elongated and point toward the bottom of the frame. I'm hoping there's a queen growing in there, if the original is gone. Just because she was such a good queen. But, there should be more than 1 supercedure cell if she's gone. It takes 21 days for a queen to emerge, then she has to go on a mating flight. It's a long process. I'm pretty sure if we don't see eggs and larvae next week, we will combine with one of the other hives. From what I've read, that's risky too. I'm tempted to buy a new Queen, but Dale wants to combine. We didn't want 4 hives, so I'll be okay with that.

 

[drstratton]

Hive #2 Better news here.
Lots of nectar, little capped
Eggs, larvae & brood.
Lots of bees

No stings today...lol

We will inspect the swarm and package hives on Thursday. I have to take a friend to the Dr today. Going fishing tomorrow.

Sad about the first hive, she was a good queen. I try to be as careful as I can and I'm nervous every time I inspect. Hopefully, we'll see something different in a week. Not holding my breath.

 

[drstratton]

If you dont

If we don't find eggs or if we don't combine???

 

[Mini Horses]

Was thinking buy a queen. Actually, I didn't finish the post as my DD called to tell me a goat was caught in the fence so I cut the phone off & went out. . All is good.