[DrBee]

I posted in the TBH my disaster of an experience with cross comb-Thankfully you'll came running and helped me try to reattach the entire 1 week old hive I had to take down.

3 Questions Today during my observations

1-I never saw the queen yesterday when this mess took place and I fear I killed her. What does a queenless hive look like? Because of the fragile nature of everything I don't want to open it up and look again for another week? What should I be looking for? They were bringing back pollen today and really active-that's good right?

2-I peeked through the opening and could see that one of the combs i tried to reattach didn't make it and is laying on the bottom of the hive. I was going to leave it as it was full of eggs unless advised to remove asap?

3-I am seeing some bees now (which is new) that have white hairs on the their thorax? Is this bee old age? I'll try to take a picture if needed, but I'm assuming someone knows what I'm talking about.

Thanks

 

[Marcin]

I would get in there and at least removed the collapsed comb. If you leave it in there too long you risk getting more of a mess. Remember that bees never violate bee space, they'll build comb parallel to what's in there now.
Good luck.

 

[Needo]

you could move the comb with the eggs to the back, so the bees don't build any wonky comb. After the bees emerge or 21 days, you could remove the comb.

The blond bees aren't necessarily new.

 

[BeeRN]

no queen = no eggs no young larvae. This is what I look for, If I see the queen, great. If not, I don't go looking for her if those two things are present. You should see emergency queen cells if she was killed.

Bringing in pollen and being active is what they do when they are healthy, with or without a queen. Yes, its good. Otherwise, I would think disease unless it was change of season and there was no pollen / nectar to be had.

Good luck
Deep breaths
Don't panic

 

[tomkat]

Aggressive bees could be a sign of a queenless hive.