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This has been the first season for my little hive in Miamiville, OH and I feel like I'm currently at a crossroads, whether to try to save the hive I have, or let it descend, after a long spiral, into nothing and start again. Here's the story:
I got my package of bees at the end of April this year from the Walter B. Kelley company and hived them the same day. Like a nervous new parent, I hovered around, watching and listening, but was able to resist opening their hive for the reccommended week and when I did, I found some eggs, pulled out the queen cage, and everything was as expected. I waited another week and checked again, at which time I couldn't find the queen, any eggs or any evidence that a queen had recently been in residence. I called some new beekeeping friends of mine and was referred to a master of beekeeping, who came out that day, looked at my hive and agreed that I was indeed queenless, but did have some laying workers. He kindly arranged for me to buy a new queen, then hived it for me and I waited another tortuous week to check them. At that check (now mid-May) I found plenty of eggs and was very pleased with my new lady. It was at this point that my hive was inspected by the Clermont County Bee Inspector who proclaimed it good, but small and advised that I would probably need to feed during the winter for them to survive.
All progressed as I imagined it should for several weeks, when I started to notice superseder cells. Though worried, I decided to leave them in case my new queen was gone. I was advised to let the bees have their way and create their own queen who would hopefully be more to their liking than either of the introduced queens apparantly had been. I checked every ten days or so until the queen cells were gone (presumably hatched) and waited to see eggs. When another week passed after the superseders hatching, I got worried again and spoke to a beekeeper that sells honey at the farmer's market I frequent and he suggested I give the new queen more time as she may not have made her nuptial flight yet. Lo and behold, when I checked the week after, there were eggs, larvae, and even some capped brood. The next time I checked (this was last week) I noticed what seemed like an overabundance of drones and even saw three of the bees hatching from their capped cells and they were all drones. Hmmmm.
Then today, I was (in Sue Hubbell's lovely Book of Bees) about how laying workers produce sterile eggs that hatch into drones, which are, of course, worse than useless to my present hive. I'm positive that this is what I have. I'm thinking now that I should either just let them perish as it's been a month since I had a proper laying queen and I'm afraid that even if I order a new queen now, the workers I had would die before they could raise a new brood.
I've read that you can try buying a nuc and putting it where your existing hive is, you can still sort of incorporate the existing bees as they return to the new nuc hive thinking it's their old one. What do you think?
Thanks so much for putting up with my novice beekeeping troubles. Even though I'm having sort of a terrible time of my freshman year, I somehow feel like the best solution would be to start another hive or two! I guess beekeeping is one of those things where one is never enough!
beegirl
I got my package of bees at the end of April this year from the Walter B. Kelley company and hived them the same day. Like a nervous new parent, I hovered around, watching and listening, but was able to resist opening their hive for the reccommended week and when I did, I found some eggs, pulled out the queen cage, and everything was as expected. I waited another week and checked again, at which time I couldn't find the queen, any eggs or any evidence that a queen had recently been in residence. I called some new beekeeping friends of mine and was referred to a master of beekeeping, who came out that day, looked at my hive and agreed that I was indeed queenless, but did have some laying workers. He kindly arranged for me to buy a new queen, then hived it for me and I waited another tortuous week to check them. At that check (now mid-May) I found plenty of eggs and was very pleased with my new lady. It was at this point that my hive was inspected by the Clermont County Bee Inspector who proclaimed it good, but small and advised that I would probably need to feed during the winter for them to survive.
All progressed as I imagined it should for several weeks, when I started to notice superseder cells. Though worried, I decided to leave them in case my new queen was gone. I was advised to let the bees have their way and create their own queen who would hopefully be more to their liking than either of the introduced queens apparantly had been. I checked every ten days or so until the queen cells were gone (presumably hatched) and waited to see eggs. When another week passed after the superseders hatching, I got worried again and spoke to a beekeeper that sells honey at the farmer's market I frequent and he suggested I give the new queen more time as she may not have made her nuptial flight yet. Lo and behold, when I checked the week after, there were eggs, larvae, and even some capped brood. The next time I checked (this was last week) I noticed what seemed like an overabundance of drones and even saw three of the bees hatching from their capped cells and they were all drones. Hmmmm.
Then today, I was (in Sue Hubbell's lovely Book of Bees) about how laying workers produce sterile eggs that hatch into drones, which are, of course, worse than useless to my present hive. I'm positive that this is what I have. I'm thinking now that I should either just let them perish as it's been a month since I had a proper laying queen and I'm afraid that even if I order a new queen now, the workers I had would die before they could raise a new brood.
I've read that you can try buying a nuc and putting it where your existing hive is, you can still sort of incorporate the existing bees as they return to the new nuc hive thinking it's their old one. What do you think?
Thanks so much for putting up with my novice beekeeping troubles. Even though I'm having sort of a terrible time of my freshman year, I somehow feel like the best solution would be to start another hive or two! I guess beekeeping is one of those things where one is never enough!
beegirl