[juzzerbee]

Very late blooming of flowers and plants(1). Did my 2nd inspection of the ONLY hive that is left from Winter and I reversed hive bodies(2). It is currently 2 deeps, 10 frames each. I would say with a decent amount of bees for Spring. The drones that I saw last week have all hatched but still no other eggs, larvae, capped brood of any kind(3). Quick look yielded no Queen(4). Haven't seen any queen cells and maybe just 1 supercedure cell(4). Then came a large hive beetle poking out of one of the frames(5). My bee packages are a month late(6).
I appreciate you reading through all my problems and now the question part..... knowing what you do, what should be the next step that I do with this hive?
Wait longer and hope a Queen IS there and will hopefully start to lay once things start blooming and temperatures warm up? Let nature "happen" and in time, eventually all bees will die? Other??? I have only 6 swarm traps out so I am not too confident of catching a swarm, but who knows.

I am picking up two 3lb. packages to install this weekend so hopefully I will have some bees this season. Thanks, juzzer

 

[Clif Schlicher]

Reviewing recent weather up there you should have trees blooming right? Are the bees flying on the good days and gathering pollen?

 

[Phoebee]

Mountain Mama, West Virginia, seems to. Striped maple and sassafras are in bloom, along with an assortment of other things we're still trying to identify. Tulip poplar are gearing up.

The new nucs started working the front yard dandilions within an hour of moving in, although the vast majority of them seemed transfixed with the strange orientation markings on their new hives. Soooo different from plain white cardboard nuc boxes. I will say the nucs were 3 weeks later than the original guess, which is hardly a surprise this year.

 

[Michael Bush]

>Does mother nature even LIKE beekeepers??

Welcome to agriculture...

 

[juzzerbee]

Clif- Your weather channel is right on. Driving to work this morning I said, "wow it finally looks like Spring and there are buds on the trees!" The bees were flying in and out pretty well yesterday.

I assume IF there is no queen they stay working hard anyway??? Or is their working a sign that they know they still have some sort of Queen??
I am puzzled because there were drones emerging last week and now no eggs. Can it happen that she won't start laying well until the temps stay above 60 (just starting lately) and/or things start to bloom? Thanks, juzzer

 

[Phoebee]

Spring? Today my wife is wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. A few days back we were in jackets. We're only a few weeks past our last snow, and now we're worried about putting on bee suits for an inspection this afternoon. We'll see if the painters' overalls are cool enough to stand.

 

[KQ6AR]

Next Year

 

[Beeonefarms]

Ahh come on plenty of year left for excitement and stories

 

[JRG13]

What do you need bee suits for a couple hives? If your bees really warrant a suit, time for new bees =p

 

[Beeonefarms]

Warrant or not .. my vote is to suit up until you are comfortable not to do so... No since going all natural just yet. " i wonder if Stark industries can hook me up"

 

[Tenbears]

It is not just beekeepers, I put in a whole passel of Chestnut trees with daily showers in the forecast for the next ten days, that was 10 days ago, It ain't rained since and I been luging 250 gallons of water daily. Now, after today they will be watered in and will only require weekly watering. So now it will rain every day!

 

[KQ6AR]

We aren't expecting rain until next winter. Might be a good honey year next year.

 

[JRG13]

I always wear a veil, don't get me wrong, just can't imagine suiting up if the bees don't warrant it

 

[juzzerbee]

Jrg13- what does having a small number of hives have to do with not needing a bee suit? And what is your reasoning that a person needs new bees if they feel better wearing a suit. I just installed 3 packages last night and chose not to wear a veil and guess what.. I got zapped on the eye lid....and these were "new" bees. Straight from California. It was 12 am, dark, 55 degrees out and no wind with all drawn comb. I would say those conditions should have made for pretty relaxed bees. A person never knows what to expect when interacting with nature. juzzer

 

[Michael Bush]

>If your bees really warrant a suit, time for new bees =p

And you're going to accomplish that without a suit?

 

[AugustC]

Not dislike as such, just indifferent!

 

[JRG13]

I was just asking if they feel like putting on a suit in the coming heat and sweating buckets, why they feel the need to suit up if the bees aren't aggressive. A tulle veil costs $12, when it's 110 in summer I sweat enough in shorts and t-shirt working the bees with just the veil on, couldn't imagine having to suit up for it. I was also trying to make the point, for a hobbyist with just a couple hives that should be fairly gentle bees, a full bee suit seems a bit overkill.
Now, if we start talking possibility of doing removals etc.... or sitting in the middle of a yard with 50-1000 hives, I'd be more inclined to suit up with all the bees flying around.

 

[Striider]

Maybe I am misunderstanding the original questions: Can't you just purchase a queen locally and re-queen the hive to get them going again?