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First of all, please excuse my ignorance if I use wrong bee keeping terms. I really will try not to embarrass myself, although it will be hard.
We received a small swarm of bees back on June 8th of this year. They had been in a nuc box for 2 weeks prior to us receiving them. The comb they had drawn up was already crossing bars. When we placed them in our hive, we were careful not to tear apart the combs (most likely mistake #1). If my memory serves me correctly there were 3 or 4 bars that contained some comb. The way the combs were crossed we could not find the queen. We put 1:1 sugar water in the hive for them and left them alone for two weeks.
When we opened the hive in a couple of weeks, the combs were even more crossed. My husband said we needed to separate the bars so that’s what I began doing. Right off the bat, an entire ‘paddle’ of comb (hope that’s correct) came loose and fell to the bottom. Needless to say the whole hive has gone from bad to worse!
I have several video clips of the entire cavity of the hive, brood end and honey end, but I don’t know if I can post videos here or not. Hopefully I can post some pics of what I’m trying to describe. When you open the hive, the bees have drawn comb everywhere. The entire hive is completely filled with comb, from the top to the bottom to both sides. I counted six bars that now contain comb.
The first picture is looking in the hive from what would be the honey end and the second picture shows what it looks like from the brood end.
Surely someone else has had this disastrous bee beginning besides us and can offer help. We just want to help the bees straighten out their combs. I can’t tell if there are eggs, larvae or even capped brood, much less any capped honey!
I would appreciate any and all help and advice. Heck, I’ll even take some criticism.
If need be, I have more pictures and I can answer any questions you might have.
I thank you in advance!
We received a small swarm of bees back on June 8th of this year. They had been in a nuc box for 2 weeks prior to us receiving them. The comb they had drawn up was already crossing bars. When we placed them in our hive, we were careful not to tear apart the combs (most likely mistake #1). If my memory serves me correctly there were 3 or 4 bars that contained some comb. The way the combs were crossed we could not find the queen. We put 1:1 sugar water in the hive for them and left them alone for two weeks.
When we opened the hive in a couple of weeks, the combs were even more crossed. My husband said we needed to separate the bars so that’s what I began doing. Right off the bat, an entire ‘paddle’ of comb (hope that’s correct) came loose and fell to the bottom. Needless to say the whole hive has gone from bad to worse!
I have several video clips of the entire cavity of the hive, brood end and honey end, but I don’t know if I can post videos here or not. Hopefully I can post some pics of what I’m trying to describe. When you open the hive, the bees have drawn comb everywhere. The entire hive is completely filled with comb, from the top to the bottom to both sides. I counted six bars that now contain comb.
The first picture is looking in the hive from what would be the honey end and the second picture shows what it looks like from the brood end.
Surely someone else has had this disastrous bee beginning besides us and can offer help. We just want to help the bees straighten out their combs. I can’t tell if there are eggs, larvae or even capped brood, much less any capped honey!
I would appreciate any and all help and advice. Heck, I’ll even take some criticism.
If need be, I have more pictures and I can answer any questions you might have.
I thank you in advance!
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