3 New Pkgs - 1 Has Nearly NO Activity

[Bob D]

On Saturday I installed 3 new packages along side my 1 wintered hive for a total of 4 hives for this year. I had so much honey in my wintered hive; I removed 5 frames of honey and distributed it out between the 3 new hives to give them a jump start.

My wintered hive has a decent amount of activity around it every day.

Hive 2 has little or no activity (2 to 3 bees coming and going over a 10 minute viewing period each time I come out)

Hive 3 has a lot of activity and have gone through 2 bottles of syrup already (all other hive are still less than half way through their first bottle)

Hive 4 has a good amount of activity.

It has been like this since the day after I installed my packages. Hive 2 is so quiet, I wondered if the bees had left! So, Yesterday I took a VERY QUICK peek into that one. I saw bees on the frame of honey against the wall, but there were only 2 bees on or near the queen cage and the queen was still in her cage.

Shouldn’t there be far more bees around the queen cage until she is released? Does this mean they may not be accepting this queen? Could some of my bees from this hive have migrated over to hive 3 next door explaining that hive high level of activity coming and going from the hive?

[Robert Hicks]

Goofy question. Is queen 2 still alive?

My only other thought is that the queen is of poor quality and is having difficulty developing pheramones.

[BerkeyDavid]

Bob
Yeah it sounds like you have either a dead queen in the cage or something bad is going on. Is the candy facing up? Could be there is a dead attendant bee blocking the way out.

If the queen is still alive in the cage, I would poke a real big hole in the candy and make sure that the queen gets out. If she is dead, then you may as well combine that package with one or more of the other packages so you don';t lose the remaining workforce.

One other possibility is that you may have another queen in your package. Make sure that there are no eggs that have been laid. If you see eggs then you have another queen in there and you are ok.

If the queen is dead, and there is no other queen, you should be able to hear a difference between the hives. The queenless one will buzz louder.

If you have a queen failure call whoever you got your package from and they will probably replace her. If you can get the new queen quickly maybe just try to reintroduce her to the existing hive.

I wouldn't let it sit queenless for very long though or you may end up with a laying worker. In that case I would do a combine and when you get a replacement queen then you can do a split or set up a 5 frame Nuc with some brood and bees from your strongest hives.

[RonS]

Bob,

Exact same thing happened to me. I ordered 2 packages and they arrived nailed together with about a 4" space between boxes. The bees from one hived package just migrated to the other hive. There were about 100 bees and a live queen in her cage left in one hive. I messed up and tried to release that queen from the cage, but she flew up and away. Now, I have a very strong robust hive with 6 pounds of bees. I am looking for a swarm for the empty hive.

Folks on this Forum responded that this happens sometimes. Bees will be bees.

Ron S.

[Bob D]

When I checked yesterday, the queen was still alive, and seemed aweful glad to see me! Running around in her cage.

This year, all 3 packages came with just the queen in her cage; no attendant bees. Last year, my 1 package came with 2 attendant bees inside the queen cage with the queen.

it's 63 degrees today, but overcast and breezy right now. Supposed to be better this afternoon, so maybe I'll check again this afternoon.

I just walked out there though and Hive #1 (wintered hive) has decent acitivty coming and going, again, Hive 2 had about 3 or 4 bees that came and went in a 10 minute period, hive 3 looks like I just dimped a package in front of it it has so much activity and hive 4 has average activity.

So, if I had a bad queen and most of my bees moved over to the next hive and I can't salvage this hive, how does that work? Does the supplier guarantee the package, or if I get a bad package, I eat it? I'm pretty sure it's too late to get another package.

The place I got them from, does sometimes purchase extra packages; he usually goes and pickes up 100 to 150 packages and brings them back for people who ordered them and a few extras for emergencies.

[Bob D]

Yes, mine came strapped together with about a 4" space between each package.

[iddee]

I would swap places with hive 2 and 3. The returning bees from 3 will then go into 2 and enforce it's strength. Continue swapping places with different hives weekly until the populace of each is near equal.

[leafcutter]

How about taking a frame or two of about-to-emerge brood (without any bees on it) frome your overwintered hive and putting it in with the weak package? Anybody emerging will adopt the queen and that hive, and it will bolster the numbers of workers since you've lost many.

[BerkeyDavid]

I like Iddee's idea!

ps agree with Leafcutter too. his note was posted while I was writing mine. :eek:

[ April 19, 2006, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: BerkeyDavid ]