[TrooperGirl]

So glad I have come across this site. I would like to thank everyone for their contribution. I have learned so much from you. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
I installed my first package of babies on May 4 2019. By May 112 2019 there were 2 queen cells built on 2 of the 10 the frames.
My Queeny had not laid a thing by May 25th 2019. No eggs, larvae or brood-nothing. My girls on the other hand have comb built and even capped honey. On the 25th I purchased replacement for my queen. I was afraid that my package would not survive. Wow that was hard!! I had felt terrible for having to do so.
My new queen: Lady Liberty is in her cage in the hive, I don't see aggression but I don't see any fanning either. I hear a combination of buzz and humming. Baby girls are not aggressive but they just don't feel like their are at complete harmony.
hear I thought my baby girls were happy. When I would go into my hive at first I would hear a buzzing and then the sound would turn into a hypnotizing humming... and everyone was super calm. To me its a beautiful gift to experience those special moments. Of course all this is very new to me and I could be completely off base!! I hope I did the right thing by replacing my queen. I hate to think that I killed my precious queeny for nothing.
Respectfully,
Jennifer

 

[msl]

Hi Jennifer, welcome to BS
There is a feature in the profile to set your location, that will help people give you local help

If you haven't yet, check out http://www.highlandbeekeepingclub.org/hlbkc/ We have a teaching apiary in Littleton and run classes there every other Sunday and can set you up with a mentor as well.

I have some questions on how things unfolded...
Did you cut out the queen cells or let them emerge/ did they emerge?
did you personally kill your "old" queen

 

[samsr]

Sorry you cant see the pics of my set up. I will post them here as well. If you have questions. Please ask. I dont claim to be an expert on this subject. I just know this has been working for me. Keeping the wind off of them in the winter seems to have worked pretty well so far. I couldnt find much information on this application so i just winged it and came up with this.

 

[rwlaw]

Welcome Jennifer, good luck.

 

[TrooperGirl]

I left the queen cells. they are empty. No egg, larvae or brood: NOTHING

UNFORTUNATELY I had to kill my queen. So very hard! and Sad
I had placed the new queen in yesterday and kept her in her own cage so the girls can get used to her. I did not see aggression. Today i released her and so far so good. I will learn more this up coming weekend.

 

[msl]

Great!
What you had were queen cups, not cells. Cells have a larva in them and would have changed how you move forward. Good job!

some caution moving forward. You bought on the 25 and released on the 27th... that's a bit on the short side, sounds like you were hopelessly queenless and acceptance may be ok, and your description of the bee behavior sounds good, but I would give it some more time next time.

 

[TrooperGirl]

Thank you so much for the advice!
Your so correct on my hopelessly queen-less. Here I had my precious package and learning the short life span of my ladies. Its heartbreaking to know that they had worked so hard building comb to have nothing. I am now thinking about getting a second hive. On the second week they had the cups made. Do you think they already knew something was wrong with my queeny?
Also today about 4hrs after release of lady liberty (my new queen) I had a bunch of my bees flying around like they were doing a orientation flight. It was the craziest thing? What are some of the causes that have them do this? Up until then there was a calm humming sound like when I check the hive. Note: when I go into my hive at first I will hear a buzzing and busy sounds and then I just talk to my lady friends and then the sound changes to somewhat of a hypnotizing and calm humming Oh it so beautiful! It's like a picturesque sound.

 

[TrooperGirl]

Yes I did personally kill my packaged queen after 3.5 weeks of nothing. That was very hard and heart breaking.
Actually after I placed the 2nd Queen in the hive, (I mis spoke on the queen cells they were just cups)the girls tore down the queen cups. A week later I had found my 2nd queen dead outside the hive. So now on the 3rd Queen Sometime before she was released the girls had made about 8 supercedure cells out of the 15 eggs laid by the 2nd queen. My neighbor removed 7 of them. That was very sad too! Those queens to be were so beautiful and looked perfect.
I had training in Montros CO on May 3 2019 and returned on May 8th 2019. That is when the supercedre cells were built and Queen #3 was released. Now my girls are aboiut 6-7 weeks old. I have eggs, some larva very little capped brood. Not even a palm width.

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Jennifer,

You need a professional inspection and continuing education from someone in your local club or myself to keep you on track.
Feel free to contact me at 970-250-5748 as I live in CO and do inspections throughout the state.

Welcome to the adventure,
Paul

 

[c-bees]

Hi Jennifer,

Welcome to the adventure,
Paul

Hey TrooperGirl, welcome to that dude's basement......

 

[pdarrah]

Hey Arkansas,

Don't troll me. You don't even know me.
Nobody cares that you're "no chemical Treatments" for a whole 8 years with all those 30 colonies. From my experience that usually means you don't know anything about bees and you buy nucs and packages annually.

If you want to talk to me feel free to call at 970-250-5748.