Installed my 2 packages about 9 days ago, opened everything up for the first time today and things are looking pretty alright I suppose.
Looked at most of the bars and noticed:
- Both hives have about 4-6 bars with a decent amount of comb on them (I forgot to count exactly, oops)
- I saw pollen and nectar/syrup (i've been feeding 5:3) in some cells, saw some girls coming back with pollen in their baskets
- Hive #1 seemed to have a little more bees in it, and was a little calmer when I popped the top
- Hive #2 was a little louder when I opened it up, appeared to have fewer (but still plenty of) bees in it.
- I had some feeders in the hives with 5:3 syrup until today, took the syrup out and put in trays of wetted sugar (M. Bush style).
Questions:
My guess would be maybe hive #2 is re-queening themselves? I would think if they were trying to swarm there'd be other brood? Should I take the queen cells as a good sign that they got the old queen to lay a couple eggs before they off'd her?
If no queen shows up in hive #2 (in a couple weeks?), should I transfer a bar from #1 once #1 has some brood?
Pictures!
Hive #1:
Hive #2
Queen cell (I assume)?
Looked at most of the bars and noticed:
- Both hives have about 4-6 bars with a decent amount of comb on them (I forgot to count exactly, oops)
- I saw pollen and nectar/syrup (i've been feeding 5:3) in some cells, saw some girls coming back with pollen in their baskets
- Hive #1 seemed to have a little more bees in it, and was a little calmer when I popped the top
- Hive #2 was a little louder when I opened it up, appeared to have fewer (but still plenty of) bees in it.
- I had some feeders in the hives with 5:3 syrup until today, took the syrup out and put in trays of wetted sugar (M. Bush style).
Questions:
My guess would be maybe hive #2 is re-queening themselves? I would think if they were trying to swarm there'd be other brood? Should I take the queen cells as a good sign that they got the old queen to lay a couple eggs before they off'd her?
If no queen shows up in hive #2 (in a couple weeks?), should I transfer a bar from #1 once #1 has some brood?
Pictures!
Hive #1:
Hive #2
Queen cell (I assume)?