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I have one traditional top bar hive among 20 Langs, and I did something really stupid to them yesterday.
I know one of my hives swarmed a couple of days ago. I watched them come through the yard and disappear to God know where. Yesterday I checked a few hives to see if I could tell which one swarmed.
Going through the top bar I found several combs full of drone brood among the healthy number of bees inside. I thought 'too much mite territory' and pulled a couple of drone combs out and threw them in the wax bucket. Thinking this wasn't the swarmer, I moved on to check other hives.
Today I emptied the bucket into the wax for melting box and noticed a capped queen cell hidden on one of the comb. Dead queen inside most probably from the 40 degree night outside the hive. I need to learn to take my time and look for such things before jumping the gun.
Now I hope they ain't screaming at me saying...... :ws:
I know one of my hives swarmed a couple of days ago. I watched them come through the yard and disappear to God know where. Yesterday I checked a few hives to see if I could tell which one swarmed.
Going through the top bar I found several combs full of drone brood among the healthy number of bees inside. I thought 'too much mite territory' and pulled a couple of drone combs out and threw them in the wax bucket. Thinking this wasn't the swarmer, I moved on to check other hives.
Today I emptied the bucket into the wax for melting box and noticed a capped queen cell hidden on one of the comb. Dead queen inside most probably from the 40 degree night outside the hive. I need to learn to take my time and look for such things before jumping the gun.
Now I hope they ain't screaming at me saying...... :ws:
