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I'm a second year beekeeper. Last year I bought 2 packages. One thrived immediately, while the other was slow to start with patchy worker brood and ultimately turned into a laying worker hive. Paying big bucks for a new queen that would ultimately be balled didnt strike me as wise and I wasn't about to take open brood from my still new but thriving hive, so I combined the two. The hive wintered awesomely (which is amazing since I live in the one of the coldest areas in Idaho) and I purchased another package at the end of April.
5 days after installing my new package, I went to check to see if the queen had been released. When she wasn't, I pulled the sugar plug and set the cage back in (mistake). No capped brood with my check last week...and now I'm booming with drone brood. Super bummed.
I really don't see combining the new package with the original hive as being a good idea because it seems to be a hairs breath away from jam packed in there as it is. I took a frame with few capped brood, marginal amount of larva and quite a few eggs on the outer sides of the frame. I know I should do this every week, but am confused. Do I keep placing brood frames until they begin building queen cells? Or for 3 to four weeks even with queen cells? I don't plan on depleting a hive all summer that I could potentially get my first honey off of, so if this is going to take longer than 3-4 weeks I may throw a righteous hissy fit.
Also, I feel as if I may have shot myself in the foot by taking a frame from a hive that I was content to just let be. What if I didn't see my queen on the frame and then violently shook and brushed her back into the hive...or worse? (Ok it wasnt violent but seriously...when your worried about a queen bee thats been a "cash cow" up until this point it makes you dramatic) I'll have to go through this for over a month? She was long gone right?!?! The eggs were small but visible, laying down flat as well as on the edges of the frame so I need somebody to reassure me she was long gone...PLEASE!!
Finally, it may sound so silly but...Is there anyway that the location of my hive could be ruining my attempts at multiple hives? It just seems so weird that I would have almost the same problem for 2 years running and the only similarity would be the location. (This location is a foot away from booming hive by the way...I'm not claiming to be smart!)
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
5 days after installing my new package, I went to check to see if the queen had been released. When she wasn't, I pulled the sugar plug and set the cage back in (mistake). No capped brood with my check last week...and now I'm booming with drone brood. Super bummed.
I really don't see combining the new package with the original hive as being a good idea because it seems to be a hairs breath away from jam packed in there as it is. I took a frame with few capped brood, marginal amount of larva and quite a few eggs on the outer sides of the frame. I know I should do this every week, but am confused. Do I keep placing brood frames until they begin building queen cells? Or for 3 to four weeks even with queen cells? I don't plan on depleting a hive all summer that I could potentially get my first honey off of, so if this is going to take longer than 3-4 weeks I may throw a righteous hissy fit.
Also, I feel as if I may have shot myself in the foot by taking a frame from a hive that I was content to just let be. What if I didn't see my queen on the frame and then violently shook and brushed her back into the hive...or worse? (Ok it wasnt violent but seriously...when your worried about a queen bee thats been a "cash cow" up until this point it makes you dramatic) I'll have to go through this for over a month? She was long gone right?!?! The eggs were small but visible, laying down flat as well as on the edges of the frame so I need somebody to reassure me she was long gone...PLEASE!!
Finally, it may sound so silly but...Is there anyway that the location of my hive could be ruining my attempts at multiple hives? It just seems so weird that I would have almost the same problem for 2 years running and the only similarity would be the location. (This location is a foot away from booming hive by the way...I'm not claiming to be smart!)
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks