Weird hive inspection

[jasongonella]

I'm rather worried about my hive. While I didn't inspect every frame (what I saw distracted me too much) I didn't see larvae (and I've never been good at finding eggs) but I did see healthy looking capped cells.

I also saw really strange looking cells that appear to be honey cells. But the coloring is strange, and the hexagonal pattern is messed up.









This hive was building up nicely after my previous inspection, but they haven't expanded into the new frames I've provided.

I'm worried now.

[justin]

everything looks normal to me. if anything looks strange it's the bees capping the honey cells but that's what they do. it lets you know that the moisture content is low and things are going well.

[jasongonella]

everything looks normal to me. if anything looks strange it's the bees capping the honey cells but that's what they do. it lets you know that the moisture content is low and things are going well.

So on the show Frasier, a caller was describing a problem. When he stops, Frasier says "Either you need to check into the nearest mental institution immediately, or you are a first year psych student."

So I saw the mottled appearance of the honey caps and I panicked.

[megank]

everything looks normal...Don't expect to see uniform hexagonal capped cells of honey.

[Ravenseye]

Don't worry about the capped honey. You'll see it on brood comb all the time exactly the way you see it in the pics. All looks well....at least from the capped honey standpoint.

[Axtmann]

There is nothing wrong with the cells but on the second frame I can see only a few brood cells (hatching bees).
Did you brushed the bees of before you made the picture? Is there no frame in the hive with eggs, larva and more closed cells?
Normally the frames should have lots of honey and a nice brood pattern.

Even the hive on picture 4 shows no bees on there frames. Just in case all your frames look like the one on the pictures….
sorry your colony is gone.

[jasongonella]

While I didn't brush the bees aside for that picture, it was one of the emptier frames. Other frames weren't nearly as empty, some were very heavy frames full of bees, capped brood, and honey.

Looking again (yes, I actually inspected two days in a row) we did verify the other problem.

I noticed a lack of larvae yesterday. I've never spotted eggs so I wasn't worried about that myself, but today my wife who has much better eyes than I do inspected looking for eggs and larvae.

We didn't find any, although we did find capped brood.

We think we may have found two queen cells though.

Maybe



Probably



Yeah, I think we may have suffered a queen loss.

Is it too late in the season to think about getting a replacement?


(Yeah, I know this isn't a disease or pest at this point)

[Axtmann]

If you are not sure make a queen test. Put a frame with EGGS from a second hive in and check it in 3 days. When bees starting with queen cells you need a new queen, buy a mated queen. Mount the cage with a wire on a frame with foundation and put it in the middle of the hive. If bees starting building combs around the cage in 3 days, remove the cover from the food plug and give the frame back. Bees will eat the candy and your queen is free. Wait a few more days, remove the frame with cage and close the gab.

If the hive is to week, combine it with a other hive.

[jasongonella]

Unfortunately I only have one hive. I know where I might get a frame with eggs, that might be my best way to get more queens if my hive is as queenless as I fear it is.

Do either of those pictures look like queen cells to you?

[m.zook]

Do either of those pictures look like queen cells to you?

Sorry. But it dont look like you have enough bees to just add a queen.looks like your gonna need to start over..It looks like at one time it had a good brood pattern then something went wrong.

[jasongonella]

It looks unpopulated because the bees are barely working some of the frames.

I started with 10 frames, five of them empty and five of them full of purchased brood, bees, honey, and pollen. Then, as the empty frames started to work I added a second box.

Some of the frames are barely busy while others are very busy.

So there may very well be enough bees if I had a queen. The question is do I call my supplier and ask for a frame of eggs, or are those two pictures queen cells?

[m.zook]

What I would do is order a already mated queen that way she is ready to start laying when she is free from her cage. sorry I don't see any queen cells.

Good luck

[ccar2000]

Jasongonella, What did you do? Were you able to recover?

[jasongonella]

I ordered a new queen. When the sugar hole was finally broken through she did not survive. I don't know if it took to long or if they rejected her. I think the population is falling in my hive now.

If the hive fails I try again next spring.

[NasalSponge]

Sorry to hear!

[ccar2000]

I just requeened one of my new hives since there were no eggs aftr two weeks. I hope I do not have the same problem with the candy plug. I will be checking this weekend to see if she got out. If not I will let her out through the cork manually. It will be three days today. I will open it up tomorrow.

[RayMarler]

It looks to me like a dry hive, no nectar, or not enough to count for anything. If the rest of the hive looks as dry as this, I'd say your queen went off laying and stopped brood production. You need to feed this hive more than anything else that I can see. If you have a queen in there and you start feeding, within 10 days you should see brood production start back up again. If you don't see any pollen stores in the hive as well then consider adding some pollen for them too.

[DRUR]

Ray:

I agree. I think you hit the nail square on the head.

I started out this year with two colonies, and towards the end of July was thinking I could eventually go into the winter with about 16, as I had split up to 6 at the time. Then the heat and the dearth of August hit, and all my colonies just shut down. I don't like feeding syrup but needed winter stores, so started feeding syrup about the first of September, heat eased up to mid 90s, and brood production picked up again. Luckily we have plenty of pollen sources here. We finally got rain from the equinotical storms, plenty of sealed brood now, temperatures only reach mid to upper 80s, but just planning on going into winter with 8 colonies now, and hoping for a good fall flow.

Check with local beeks and see what you can expect, after the bees get on a good flow, you should be able to tell as they will most probably quit taking syrup.

[RayMarler]

I'm in a dearth here as well, with a few splits I'm trying to build up. I'm feeding syrup and pollen both.

Most of the hives I've here won't need much syrup, just the three splits I'm boosting and one hive that went dry on me. There was dry brood, the queen was not laying, the combs were dry except for some sealed honey frames, and the bees were all running around on the combs like race horses at the track. I put feeder on them and gave pollen and the next day they were all calmed down and getting to work.

I've got 4 out of 10 here that's going to need feeding through the end of October to get stores up, the other 6 will be ok with just another 1/2 gallon or so I'm thinking at this point. We should be getting a low volume nectar flow starting here by month's end.

[jasongonella]

Good news. I thought my hive was, well, kaput. Dying, you know.

They even rejected the replacement queen.

So I decided to wait for it to die and then try again next year (this year).

Well, as I was looking at the hive this morning (not opening it up) I saw a few bees buzzing in and out. It's not dead, the queen had just stopped laying for whatever reason.