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Does this ever work? The swarm I have rehived themselves in an empty hive, if that helps. They're way too small to survive the winter, and their old hive is the only one that could benefit from...

Here's my situation -- the queen flew away from my newly hived colony when I was putting in a marshmallow. It happened so fast and she looked so small, I thought surely she was a worker, and that...

Oh... good idea!

I seem to ask this question every year, but I keep forgetting. How long does a queen from a new package have to start laying? 10 days now, and no eggs.

This one is problematic because the...

Oh no, I didn't destroy the supercedure cells... What I destroyed (accidentally) was the comb that was sticking the bottom and top box frames together, which, now that I think about it, was probably...

Hi -- Thanks for the ideas... I don't think there are any swarm cells, though I possibly destroyed them. There was some burr comb between the bottom and top boxes, with what I thought was drone...

I'm trying to figure out if I have a queen in a hive or not...

The last time I can confirm eggs was about three to three and a half weeks ago, and were there eggs! There were probably 13 frames...

One of my colonies lost a ton of bees in the package and the first night for no reason I can see. The other colony right next them was fine, so it's a big mystery. Now they're going about their...

Op -- Nevermind! I took a second look and saw a few eggs. Maybe she started laying right while I was posting. Anyway, all is well!

I forgot to mention, this would be day 13 since the queen was released, assuming they got the marshmallow out the day after I put it in.

So I just inspected this hive, and there are still no eggs. I did see the queen -- she looked pretty good, big, wandering around on her frame. I also noticed that the bees are using most of the...

Last year I had a queen DOA in the package. I hived the bees, no problem, and then got a new queen the next day. It was all good. Well, not all good, as they killed the second queen and raised...

I started with two last year and was glad, because when one hive got screwy for whatever reason, the other hive acted as a baseline for normal. Being new, everything looked weird in there all the...

My husband's grandmother gave us a stethoscope this winter that her husband used years ago when he kept bees. We used it to listen all winter, but I'm still learning the nature of the buzzing. I...

:D

I love reading stories like these. "Situation critical" -- I've totally been there.

Hi Tom!

Don't really have anything useful to add, just saying hi. My remaining hive didn't survive either. I have a good feeling about this summer, though.

I think the can was about as heavy as the other one. I wondered about that, for the ones that died in the package, but a whole ton of them died in the hive the first night, too. And those looked...

Just wondering. I just got two packages from a guy who has a very good record. Picked them up the day they got in (after, I'm guessing, a couple days transit). They were right next to eachother,...

Thanks for the responses. I'll wait until two weeks to think there's a problem.

Is this your first year?

Last year was my first year, and I felt like hiving was a disaster (bees everywhere, a bunch died in the package), but this year I did one so far and it went off without...

Also, I forgot, the queen was originally in her cage with a cork, which I took out and replaced with a marshmallow, so I suspect they got her out the next day, which would mean 5 days total out of...

I hived a Carniolan package six days ago, and inspected them for the first time today. Since the weather was good, I thought I'd do the first inspection a day early. No eggs yet, queen out of her...

So, Mt. Redoubt is currently erupting up here. I'm in Anchorage, and the ashfall is heading north of us for the time being, fingers crossed. But I'm wondering, should I do anything for the bees...

I did it, thanks! I'm glad I did, too -- I'd forgotten a pollen patty in there that had gone all moldy. All is well otherwise. I didn't see any live bees, they were all down in the bottom where...

Is this a terrible idea? I don't have a hive-top feeder, so I'd be opening right onto the frames. The reason I want to do this is we built the bees a candy board for winter feeding at the...