Re: Package 2 weeks old, inspection. How do they look?
After two weeks if you started on bare foundation, you should see a couple of frames drawn out with eggs and larva in various stages of development. Along with nectar and pollen around the brood area. If the queen started to lay eggs the same day you installed the package which is unlikely because she isn’t usually released for three or four days, you would still be a week away from worker brood hatching out. So at this time the population will dwindle a little. You should find it easier to find the queen, but unless I really need to find her I will just look for queen signs, if you see eggs you had a queen at least three days ago. If the hive is calm things are normal, if bees are flying at your face, loud buzzing or roaring and running around the comb excessively make a point of finding the queen. After a while you will recognize just by the sound when you open the hive if things are as they should bee. If you have abundant nectar flow going they will start to ignore sugar syrup or pollen patties, and you will see forgers bring in pollen on their legs.
The Busy Bee teaches two lessons: One is not to be idle and the other is not to get stung.
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