More noob questions, with pictures.

[Dale_3rd]

Okay, went into the hives today to check on the progress and fill up the feeders and from my untrained eye it seems to me that things are looking good. In two of the hives, comb was drawn out a frame away from the main drawn out frames, about a 4" diameter patch that had some pollen and honey around it, then capped brood. The caps were "bulbous" so I'm assuming the location and type of capping these were drones. I was having trouble with the camera and didn't get a picture of it.

These pictures are of the frames of brood. I'm not certain about the "pattern" but the uncapped ones do have larva in them and from the pictures I've seen, the capped honey and pollen around the brood seems good. Please feel free to comment if I'm off the mark!










The next two pictures are from the last hive I inspected. Seems to me this is a single supersceedure cell (red circled) and because I'm a 3 week old "beek" I've got no clue if I'm right or not (chances are, NOT). It doesn't look like what I remember I've seen in other pictures. Could these 2 cells just be where the new queen "missed" fertilizing them and are drones mixed in? I also could have SWORN I heard a queen piping. Not like in the videos I've seen, where the old queen makes a noise and the new one responds, but more like the sound a mud dauber makes making a mud tube, but in short bursts. Do bees make a noise when ready to emerge? I didn't do anything with it, figuring that the bees knew more than me! LOL

Last week I didn't see the queen in this hive, but did find her today. Last week I was able to find 3 of the 4 queens but this week only 2 of the 4, however, all hives seemed to be queenright.

Here is the close up of the cell.



This is the image of the whole frame, showing the placement and what the rest of the frame looked like.



Thanks!

[JRG13]

I think those are drone cells, not queencells. Queen cells are usually oriented vertically but not always. Workers will buzz kind of like piping as well. I don't know why, some days it's more prevalent than others. Last week, a lot of my bees were pseudo piping on every frame.

[Brent Bean]

By the looks of the new frames I’m assuming that the colony was recently started? If so things look very good. Nice solid brood pattern both capped and uncapped, pollen and honey around the brood and the frames are drawn out using the entire area of the foundation. Sleep sound and get your honey jars ready.

[MrHappy]

Does not look like queen cells. They are a lot bigger.

[adam@azapiaries]

I see no problems with those combs. Notice the perfect combs drawn on plastic foundation. Notice the pollen surrounding the brood. A good variety of colors and addequate supply, indication that the bees are getting a good diet. That is something you will want to monitor during the brood rearing season. If you dont see pollen surrounding young brood, add a pollen patty.

[fly4fun172]

I believe all of that capped brood is still workers except possibly for those couple of larger ones just to answer your question about the "bulbous cells". By the look of it you are using foundation so unless the bees draw out there own drone comb in any areas the foundation doesn't completely cover(possibly the sides), the ones they do lay will probably look out of place like that since the cells are made for worker bees.

[Lburou]

If your bees have done all that in three weeks, you are off to a very good start. Note: If you see fresh eggs, you dodn't have to see the queen, and the bees will make a certain number of drone cells, don't fight it. You will want to make a habit of looking for small hive beetles, (herded into a crack or corner of the hive), and varroa mites during your inspections. Your inspection experience will grow each visit to our hives and you will begin to notice subtle changes in the hive. Keep reading here and you will have a leg up in your education.

[Dale_3rd]

Thanks for all the replies!! Glad that isn't a queen cell and the more I thought about it, the more it did look like the drone (at least what I thought was drone) cells in the other cells away from the main brood area.

I was also glad to hear they were doing so well too, puts my mind at ease knowing they seem to be on target as far as progress goes.

No hive beetles that I could find so far and I've been looking. I've already got some beetle traps ready and waiting for the first beetle I see.