Hive one:
This is our first, a salvaged hive I posted about when we got it. It swarmed on us just under three weeks ago and we went through it yesterday to see what was going on inside. Found what seemed like a fair amount of bees, no eggs, no uncapped brood, a little capped brood - both worker and drone, six queen cells that appear to have hatched out and many, many drones. The queen cells were all up on the center of frames in the upper deep (there are two deeps with a super above them) and all had been capped and are now open with rough edges around the remains of the caps. A number of the worker cells were hatching.
I want to be sure I'm clear on the timing of a new queen getting to work so we know when we need to start being concerned if it gets to that point. Since there is hatching worker brood, and no new brood or eggs, and we know this hive swarmed 19 days ago I'd guess it's safe to say we last had a laying queen about three weeks ago, maybe a little less since there is still capped brood to hatch. Given these, I'm thinking that if all has gone well we should have a laying queen within 7-10 days. Correct? I'm not particularly worried as I know the bees usually take care of themselves very well, but when we check next weekend if we don't at least see eggs it might be time to get a little nervous, right?
Hive two:
Captured small-to-medium swarm installed to 5-frame nuc. Transferred to ten-frame deep at about four weeks when nuc was filled. Added second deep when first was nearly drawn, probably four weeks ago. Opened it yesterday to see if it was ready for a super, then decided to pull frames from top deep for a general check. Found that all frames are entirely drawn, and all are either completely full of, or being filled with honey, most of it capped. This led us to open the lower deep to see what was going on there. Honey on two outer frames, then a mix with plenty of stored pollen and a decent, but not great looking pattern of brood in all stages. Could not find eggs, but light was bad by this time and my eyes are not reliable enough to conclude there are none. I realize that the bees are smarter than I am, and maybe this is OK but I'm wondering if we need to do anything with this situation. Why did they store honey right away rather than expand the brood area? Is it possible we caused this with bad timing? Do we need to give them more room to lay soon? We've got both mediums and deeps and the frames to fill them if needed. What advice do you have for a plan of action on this one, if necessary?
Thanks very much for any help.
This is our first, a salvaged hive I posted about when we got it. It swarmed on us just under three weeks ago and we went through it yesterday to see what was going on inside. Found what seemed like a fair amount of bees, no eggs, no uncapped brood, a little capped brood - both worker and drone, six queen cells that appear to have hatched out and many, many drones. The queen cells were all up on the center of frames in the upper deep (there are two deeps with a super above them) and all had been capped and are now open with rough edges around the remains of the caps. A number of the worker cells were hatching.
I want to be sure I'm clear on the timing of a new queen getting to work so we know when we need to start being concerned if it gets to that point. Since there is hatching worker brood, and no new brood or eggs, and we know this hive swarmed 19 days ago I'd guess it's safe to say we last had a laying queen about three weeks ago, maybe a little less since there is still capped brood to hatch. Given these, I'm thinking that if all has gone well we should have a laying queen within 7-10 days. Correct? I'm not particularly worried as I know the bees usually take care of themselves very well, but when we check next weekend if we don't at least see eggs it might be time to get a little nervous, right?
Hive two:
Captured small-to-medium swarm installed to 5-frame nuc. Transferred to ten-frame deep at about four weeks when nuc was filled. Added second deep when first was nearly drawn, probably four weeks ago. Opened it yesterday to see if it was ready for a super, then decided to pull frames from top deep for a general check. Found that all frames are entirely drawn, and all are either completely full of, or being filled with honey, most of it capped. This led us to open the lower deep to see what was going on there. Honey on two outer frames, then a mix with plenty of stored pollen and a decent, but not great looking pattern of brood in all stages. Could not find eggs, but light was bad by this time and my eyes are not reliable enough to conclude there are none. I realize that the bees are smarter than I am, and maybe this is OK but I'm wondering if we need to do anything with this situation. Why did they store honey right away rather than expand the brood area? Is it possible we caused this with bad timing? Do we need to give them more room to lay soon? We've got both mediums and deeps and the frames to fill them if needed. What advice do you have for a plan of action on this one, if necessary?
Thanks very much for any help.