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Hi Everyone,
My wife and I are brand new beekeepers as of today, and I think we are already having problems. So I picked up two Nucs this morning and we put them in the hive boxes this afternoon. The hives are maybe 2- 2 1/2 feet a part from each other due to backyard space constraints. One of the hives is doing great. Lots of activity, bees coming with pollen and going. The other hive not so much. Literally no bees are leaving the hive and none are coming. No traffic. I'm worried. I'm concerned something happened to the queen because when we rehomed the second Nuc, after observing for a bit I believe I saw another bee dragging the queen out the front and was trying to kill her. It happened fast so I'm not 100% it was the queen given my inexperience and the rapid event. I'm thinking maybe it was a bee from the 1st Nuc colony? Or perhaps a weak Queen to start with in Nuc #2. Anyways I tapped the attacking bee off her and placed her back up top and she did scitter back down into the hive, but she looked banged up. I've lifted off the outer and inner cover a few times to try and see if there was a clearance issue or something, but nothing seen.The bees are just moving around very slowly like they are confused and don't know what to do. I just keep hoping to see them flying tomorrow and maybe they are just disoriented from the move? (Wishful thinking probably.) My plan is to take a closer inspection of this hive in the next day or two, try and find the queen, and assess the brood nest more thoroughly than I was able to today given the anxiety of handling bees for the first time and rehoming them. I'm thinking maybe the Queen is dead or messed up and the hive isn't Queenright. I know I have some options to replace the Queen which I can do if that is needed. Or another thought I had was to just add the brood and honey frames from the 2nd nuc to the first one and make a really strong colony out the gate, then scramble to maybe get my hands on another Nuc or package/queen.
Anyone have thoughts on this? Have you seen this sort of behavior or lack of behavior? Good options to troubleshoot? Should we not have rehomed the Nucs back-to-back in such close proximity to each other? Any and all advice welcome. Thanks in advance.
-AMc
My wife and I are brand new beekeepers as of today, and I think we are already having problems. So I picked up two Nucs this morning and we put them in the hive boxes this afternoon. The hives are maybe 2- 2 1/2 feet a part from each other due to backyard space constraints. One of the hives is doing great. Lots of activity, bees coming with pollen and going. The other hive not so much. Literally no bees are leaving the hive and none are coming. No traffic. I'm worried. I'm concerned something happened to the queen because when we rehomed the second Nuc, after observing for a bit I believe I saw another bee dragging the queen out the front and was trying to kill her. It happened fast so I'm not 100% it was the queen given my inexperience and the rapid event. I'm thinking maybe it was a bee from the 1st Nuc colony? Or perhaps a weak Queen to start with in Nuc #2. Anyways I tapped the attacking bee off her and placed her back up top and she did scitter back down into the hive, but she looked banged up. I've lifted off the outer and inner cover a few times to try and see if there was a clearance issue or something, but nothing seen.The bees are just moving around very slowly like they are confused and don't know what to do. I just keep hoping to see them flying tomorrow and maybe they are just disoriented from the move? (Wishful thinking probably.) My plan is to take a closer inspection of this hive in the next day or two, try and find the queen, and assess the brood nest more thoroughly than I was able to today given the anxiety of handling bees for the first time and rehoming them. I'm thinking maybe the Queen is dead or messed up and the hive isn't Queenright. I know I have some options to replace the Queen which I can do if that is needed. Or another thought I had was to just add the brood and honey frames from the 2nd nuc to the first one and make a really strong colony out the gate, then scramble to maybe get my hands on another Nuc or package/queen.
Anyone have thoughts on this? Have you seen this sort of behavior or lack of behavior? Good options to troubleshoot? Should we not have rehomed the Nucs back-to-back in such close proximity to each other? Any and all advice welcome. Thanks in advance.
-AMc