BuzzyBee
06-07-2008, 12:56 PM
Hello friends,
Hope your girls are all happy and working hard!
Just checked on the package I hived last Saturday. They are slowly drawing comb, but not much. I'd put in a frame of mostly drawn comb from my swarm hive that was installed the weekend before. There isn't much brood and only on the frame that I added. There is a big capped queen cell right in the middle. I looked pretty hard but couldn't find a queen dead or alive. (she wasn't in here cage) I have a queen excluder on the bottom of the box so she couldn't escape? I've never seen a virgin queen, but she looked pretty fat and sassy. :) When I hived the package, she looked healthy and active.
Do you think I should assume she's gone and let the queen cell hatch or cut it out. :confused: I guess from what I've read, this is where they would build a supercedure cell.
Would there have been enough time for them to actually cap a queen cell? I poked a hole in the candy when I put her in the hive, so don't actually know how long it took to release her. Maybe Monday? There is other capped brood on the frame along with syrup and pollen. There may have been eggs in the frame of comb I robbed from the other hive. I can't really see that well through the veil. I'm very new, but I'm positive I didn't move the swarm queen to the package hive as I closed up the package one first and then saw her in her original hive before I closed it.
The package bees are drawing comb on two other frames, but only on one side so far. I'm feeding syrup in both a top feeder (Miller type) and a Boardman. They are taking it, but there is a lot of dutch clover in bloom and they seem to be working that along with other flowers and trees.
The swarm is really going gangbusters. I added another deep a couple of days ago as they'd drawn out 7 frames in less that 2 weeks. Great pattern and lots of capped and uncapped brood.
Any advice will be mucho appreciated! Thanks
Buzzy
Hope your girls are all happy and working hard!
Just checked on the package I hived last Saturday. They are slowly drawing comb, but not much. I'd put in a frame of mostly drawn comb from my swarm hive that was installed the weekend before. There isn't much brood and only on the frame that I added. There is a big capped queen cell right in the middle. I looked pretty hard but couldn't find a queen dead or alive. (she wasn't in here cage) I have a queen excluder on the bottom of the box so she couldn't escape? I've never seen a virgin queen, but she looked pretty fat and sassy. :) When I hived the package, she looked healthy and active.
Do you think I should assume she's gone and let the queen cell hatch or cut it out. :confused: I guess from what I've read, this is where they would build a supercedure cell.
Would there have been enough time for them to actually cap a queen cell? I poked a hole in the candy when I put her in the hive, so don't actually know how long it took to release her. Maybe Monday? There is other capped brood on the frame along with syrup and pollen. There may have been eggs in the frame of comb I robbed from the other hive. I can't really see that well through the veil. I'm very new, but I'm positive I didn't move the swarm queen to the package hive as I closed up the package one first and then saw her in her original hive before I closed it.
The package bees are drawing comb on two other frames, but only on one side so far. I'm feeding syrup in both a top feeder (Miller type) and a Boardman. They are taking it, but there is a lot of dutch clover in bloom and they seem to be working that along with other flowers and trees.
The swarm is really going gangbusters. I added another deep a couple of days ago as they'd drawn out 7 frames in less that 2 weeks. Great pattern and lots of capped and uncapped brood.
Any advice will be mucho appreciated! Thanks
Buzzy