What do you think of my first Inspection...

[Konrad]

Today it's 10 days when I installed 2 packages into brand new Pierco [deep] foundation.

This hive is a bit weaker, less bees by about one frame, has a batch of larva, curled around the bottom of cell, only on one frame, it looks like about 7 to 8 days old ?, can't see eggs, because I need to see a Optometrist, I took reading glasses, but still can't see...it kind of bugs me, so my next step is to get my eyes checked.
Also have noticed, this hive seems to be always more "active", more bees flying in front of hive, a bit more unsettled is seems.

The other hive, already some caped brood with larva on two frames, it looks like the Queen laid on day one or two?

What do you think?
I thought first that they where drifting, I have the hives about 15 feet apart? but I think it was a weaker package to start out with, [more bee death]
Is there a need to compensate, by switching places on a nice sunny day?
Konrad

[ChellesBees]

Probably not a big deal, I would let them go another week or two before I got too worried about them. Is the brood pattern in the weaker hive good or is it spotty? You could swap the hives, but I don't know that it would make much difference.

[Konrad]

thanks chelles...
the brood was basically all in one cluster all together about 2/3 the size of your hand.
good or bad??
Konrad

[KyBee]

Konrad one of my package hives is weaker than the other also. I think I did get a lot of drift because my hives are too close together. I've now marked one hive with a three-inch white plywood square near the entrance and the activity at the entrances seems to have evened out a bit. But when I pulled the frames this week to inspect, I was surprised to see there is not too much difference in amounts of brood. I think I have about 1 side of a frame more in the strong hive, although there are a lot more bees in that hive now. I have the sense that since I've marked the one hive, it will even out a bit once brood starts to hatch and they really get going, but I don't know.

I'm interested to know what you do with yours. Have you seen your queens? Do they both look okay?

[Konrad]

thanks Kybee...
how far are your hives apart?
mine are 15 feet, can they still drift?
Haven't spend much time looking, so did not look for the Queen because it was on the cool side, so I didn't want the hive being open too long.
I have decided what chellesbees recommended, live them a couple of weeks for now.
Konrad

[KyBee]

My first two hives are only about two feet apart. Maybe only eighteen inches. Not NEARLY enough. I heard people saying you should put them five feet apart, but I didn't see anybody actually DOING that. Everybody's hives I've seen, including the "experts" are very close together. Some have them right up against each other with only a couple of inches of space.

And basically, I don't have room. If I did the five feet apart thing, as many hives as I eventually want, I'd have them all over the yard. I need to keep the bee yard kind of in one place so I can use the rest of my yard for other stuff like oh, say, living. I also don't want to have to wear a bee suit while I mow an acre and a half. With them confined to one part of the yard, I can just wear the suit in that part I hope. Hives way far apart is just not realistic for me, so I'll have to find other ways to help them locate their own hive. The symbols on the front was suggested to me by more than one beekeeper.

It's very interesting that we emailed a picture of the new hives at sunrise to a long-distance friend of ours who, unbeknownst to us, has been beekeeping for many years. He saw the pic and said, "your hives are too close together. The hive on the west will steal bees from the hive on the east, and they will likely be so weak by fall that they won't survive the winter."

And you know what? The hive on the west side is the strong hive now, and the eastern hive is weaker. He is also the first to suggest the symbols on the front of the hive to help the bees orient. He suggested also staggering the hives forward and back a few feet so they're not all in an even row, and varying the angle they face a bit, so the sun strikes the entrances differently. So the swarm we just hived is a few feet back and to the side of the others.

I don't know about drift at fifteen feet. That seems plenty far enough, and I would suppose there will be SOME inevitable drift in any bee yard, no matter how far apart they are. Somebody with more experience will have to tell you about spacing because as I said, what I've been told is not what I see the "tellers" actually doing. :0/ I just know that evidence suggests that mine are in fact too close together.

[Joel]

Kybee, We run hives on pallets, almost side by side. Drifting should not be a problem. If you have concerns paint shapes(circle,diamond,square etc) or number the front of you supers. Although much of orientation is related to polarization bees are able to recognize distinct shapes (and from my experiance color). In a small apiary the rule is 2 feet or 2 miles for orientation. If you have limited space and can give the bees 2+ feet that should minimize drifting.(except on windy days).

[John Schneider]

Konrad...glad to hear that all is well with your hives. I also did a full inspection last weekend on my one and only hive. Same sort of results as you. One frame with a cluster of brood and three others with honey and pollen and no brood. They are just starting to draw comb on the fifth frame and the others are untouched as of yet. I suspect that the cold weather really knocked the population of the package down and they are struggling to grow now. I saw some capped brood so I should have some new workers to help out soon! What field bees exist in the hive are busy bringing pollen in I see.