Hi! First time beekeeper here! I got a package back on April 26th. My bees are acting lethargic, not many coming in and out, their uncapped cells look dry.
Timeline:
April 16th, installed, opened candy end of queen cage.
April 20th, checked on queen, she was still trapped. They'd drawn out about 1 frame
Sometime around April 28th? Inspected the hive, she was out, moderate number of shiny cells (didn't check for eggs), and pollen, 3 frames drawn
May 6th, inspected the hive and everything looked good. They had 4-5 frames drawn, and some capped honey/syrup, nectar, some pollen (not much), capped brood, eggs in cells.
May 20th, lethargic bees, way fewer bees (albeit on the hottest day in a good long while (71 F) may have been foraging). The uncapped egg & larvae cells look dry. No queen cells. I also noticed no drone cells at all?
I've never seen the queen. I'm in Maine, so there haven't been any flowers for a while, so I've been feeding them 1:1 sugar syrup. They're Italian bees.
I wouldn't noticed because I also have a hive of half Italian half Carniolans that I got May 11th as a nuc. That hive is hummmming, already expanded by 3 frames, they've got loads of capped brood (worker and drone). They also have some supercedure cells going, so I think I may have crushed the queen (also never seen her!) I'm going to give them the second deep in a couple of days to help them grow.
But back to the Italians, I put some water nearby where they could get to with some sticks so they could perch. I'm not sure what else to do? I doubt they swarmed, they have barely barely 5 frames drawn!
Timeline:
April 16th, installed, opened candy end of queen cage.
April 20th, checked on queen, she was still trapped. They'd drawn out about 1 frame
Sometime around April 28th? Inspected the hive, she was out, moderate number of shiny cells (didn't check for eggs), and pollen, 3 frames drawn
May 6th, inspected the hive and everything looked good. They had 4-5 frames drawn, and some capped honey/syrup, nectar, some pollen (not much), capped brood, eggs in cells.
May 20th, lethargic bees, way fewer bees (albeit on the hottest day in a good long while (71 F) may have been foraging). The uncapped egg & larvae cells look dry. No queen cells. I also noticed no drone cells at all?
I've never seen the queen. I'm in Maine, so there haven't been any flowers for a while, so I've been feeding them 1:1 sugar syrup. They're Italian bees.
I wouldn't noticed because I also have a hive of half Italian half Carniolans that I got May 11th as a nuc. That hive is hummmming, already expanded by 3 frames, they've got loads of capped brood (worker and drone). They also have some supercedure cells going, so I think I may have crushed the queen (also never seen her!) I'm going to give them the second deep in a couple of days to help them grow.
But back to the Italians, I put some water nearby where they could get to with some sticks so they could perch. I'm not sure what else to do? I doubt they swarmed, they have barely barely 5 frames drawn!
