[senilking]

Ok, on the 7th, I opened up my good hive. It was doing fairly well with bees, brood, honey, and pollen. But it also had a single queen cell in the middle of a frame. Being a newbee still, I didn't look to see if it had an egg, but it was not capped, and I never found the queen. Do they build the cell and then lay the egg, or build a cell around a egg?

Anyways, that hive was busting at the seams, like pushing the bottom screen down and filling the space between the inner and outer cover full. I finally got around to working on adding another medium (I'm trying to go all mediums). Well, I walked out there, and of course they were swarming. I've caught them, and placed them in a third hive, but I'm confused on the timing.

If I had a queen cell on the 7th, I would have to have a queen emerging by today at least. But there was only one queen cell. So does that mean it was a supersedure cell, and my old queen just left with half the bees instead of them killing her? Or were they going to build a few more swarm cells and I just caught them on the 7th before they did?


On another note, my bees WILL NOT pull comb on plastic frames. At least I know they won't not when there's wood frames in the hive. I know this is a common problem, but I was hoping mine would. Both hives have a half deep of plastic and half deep of wood, and a full plastic medium. I don't think they've pulled hardly any of the plastic. The third new hive is a medium with plastic frames, so maybe this new swarm will actually pull the plastic frames.

Oh, and I'm also a hostage. I apparently squished one of the bees friend and she's waiting out by the truck to get me. Just one single bee, but she attacks my hair repeatedly while I try to knock her off. I've never actually wanted to kill a honeybee, but I've started trying to squish her. I've walked out there twice and she's worse than any hornet.

 

[Brad Bee]

I've never actually wanted to kill a honeybee, but I've started trying to squish her.

One day that feeling will probably go away. It went away for me the day that our cattle got into my hives and turned one of them over. On a side note, don't ever go put a hive back together that cows knocked over, without your veil on. That day, I enjoyed killing the ones on my bald head and especially my ears....

 

[johng]

Normally the bees build queen cups and force the queen to lay in them. For swarming. But, if they are building emergency cells or supercedure cells they will build the cell around a larva that is already there. It only takes them 7 days to cap queen cells, they normally swarm about the same time the cells are capped. So your hive could of started swarm cells as little as 6-7 days ago.

Most of the time when you get that one bee that is intent on stinging you. You might as well go ahead and kill her or leave because she is going to keep trying until one or the other happens.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

l
On another note, my bees WILL NOT pull comb on plastic frames. At least I know they won't not when there's wood frames in the hive. I know this is a common problem, but I was hoping mine would. Both hives have a half deep of plastic and half deep of wood, and a full plastic medium. I don't think they've pulled hardly any of the plastic. The third new hive is a medium with plastic frames, so maybe this new swarm will actually pull the plastic frames.

I've always had rotten success at mixing plastic and wood in the same hive. The plastic does not get built. Since each of your hives has a half-deep of both, maybe try putting all the wood in one hive and all the plastic in the other? Maybe then the plastic will get built.

HTH

Rusty