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Hi not much info to go on as it is early days but I received some bees into my newly made topbar hive on Wednesday. The bees came from a national hive on the same family property from a local beek. He shook a few frames of bees, added a chop n cropped frame from the national as it was damaged anyway. The frame contained capped drone brood, unsure of what else as I did not handle it, and was placed into the tbh to try and keep them from absconding. They were also given 7 bars to build on then a follower board. The beek had removed queen cells from the old hive the previous evening and captured a virgin queen which he then uncaged it and let walk into the entrance ( he had also added a queen excluder the evening before, the hive swarmed that next morning but went back inside and we made the split later same day)
Unfortunately he is away a lot at the moment and won't be back for 10 days but left instructions to feed them next day, and he would check them in 2 weeks. I went to do this next day and the bees were very unsettled, lots of head knocking and a resonant hum / roar when opening hive follower to add feeder. lots of bees pouring out and flying too. I went back a couple of days later to check feeder and it was untouched so I went to remove it and same behaviour. lots of unsettled bees. They at least appear to be doing something ( fine wax flakes under hive , a crackling popping sound too)
and I was able to look into the first couple of bars from the edge and see they had chewed off the foundation strips he had me put onto the semicircle comb guides and started building comb! I dared not go any further though as I am a novice and they seemed upset again as well as busy building.
Perhaps it is a case of over worrying but they may well have no queen and no eggs to make one. The other hive is still there ( it was moved away a bit and the new tbh took its place so flying bees returned to new hive) but I'm not sure I have the experience to cut out eggs from it and it might be a little disrespectful too?! I could also get in touch with a local breeder which I found online with old queens for £45 but I really like these bees despite them being a bit on the aggressive side, they are very productive and resistant to disease.
Realistically how long can I wait and see about the virgin queen before it is too late for them to recover? and should I upset them further in order to check whether they have/had eggs to make a new queen or virgin was accepted and mated (unlikely?)
Thanks, Charlie.
Unfortunately he is away a lot at the moment and won't be back for 10 days but left instructions to feed them next day, and he would check them in 2 weeks. I went to do this next day and the bees were very unsettled, lots of head knocking and a resonant hum / roar when opening hive follower to add feeder. lots of bees pouring out and flying too. I went back a couple of days later to check feeder and it was untouched so I went to remove it and same behaviour. lots of unsettled bees. They at least appear to be doing something ( fine wax flakes under hive , a crackling popping sound too)
and I was able to look into the first couple of bars from the edge and see they had chewed off the foundation strips he had me put onto the semicircle comb guides and started building comb! I dared not go any further though as I am a novice and they seemed upset again as well as busy building.
Perhaps it is a case of over worrying but they may well have no queen and no eggs to make one. The other hive is still there ( it was moved away a bit and the new tbh took its place so flying bees returned to new hive) but I'm not sure I have the experience to cut out eggs from it and it might be a little disrespectful too?! I could also get in touch with a local breeder which I found online with old queens for £45 but I really like these bees despite them being a bit on the aggressive side, they are very productive and resistant to disease.
Realistically how long can I wait and see about the virgin queen before it is too late for them to recover? and should I upset them further in order to check whether they have/had eggs to make a new queen or virgin was accepted and mated (unlikely?)
Thanks, Charlie.
They actually look a lot darker in action/ from above if that makes sense! I must say your description of their behaviour is uncannily accurate according to the beekeepers and my limited experience. I was bemused that my BK called them bad tempered as I had used to watch them not 10 feet from the hive without even any notice. Since an inspection....different story! Loving the mongrels though 
