Short version:
Remaining hive from last year took a big hit with a cold snap in spring. When it was warm enough to peek in there, it was a handful (50-100) bee's with a queen. Limped them along through spring, but alas the queen died on me and it became a laying worker hive. Was ordering queens for a couple other hives and decided to give them one last shot before I just combine them a stronger hive. My wife and I did a quick check 6 days afterward and the queen was out. Good!!! Yippee!!!!
About three weeks later, I notice that this little hive just doesn't seem to be very active like the other two next to it. I thinks to myself..."Hmmm, we have got to get in there and see what is going on." Then life happened and just couldn't do a inspection. (Between thunderstorms causing damage, ***** killing chickens, vehicle breakdowns and various other problems that are just part of life I'm happy to get 5 hours of sleep a night.)
It's now 4 weeks after re-queening and I just came in from a nice sweaty (it's really stupid hot here today) inspection. The girls have things all sorted out. The queen is in her place and was laying, even right in front of my eyes (evidently she is not shy). They seemed to be just fine albeit at a slower pace than I am used to.
It's a relief that they don't need me to intervene and tell them what to do all the time because I just can't keep up with what I have now.
Remaining hive from last year took a big hit with a cold snap in spring. When it was warm enough to peek in there, it was a handful (50-100) bee's with a queen. Limped them along through spring, but alas the queen died on me and it became a laying worker hive. Was ordering queens for a couple other hives and decided to give them one last shot before I just combine them a stronger hive. My wife and I did a quick check 6 days afterward and the queen was out. Good!!! Yippee!!!!
About three weeks later, I notice that this little hive just doesn't seem to be very active like the other two next to it. I thinks to myself..."Hmmm, we have got to get in there and see what is going on." Then life happened and just couldn't do a inspection. (Between thunderstorms causing damage, ***** killing chickens, vehicle breakdowns and various other problems that are just part of life I'm happy to get 5 hours of sleep a night.)
It's now 4 weeks after re-queening and I just came in from a nice sweaty (it's really stupid hot here today) inspection. The girls have things all sorted out. The queen is in her place and was laying, even right in front of my eyes (evidently she is not shy). They seemed to be just fine albeit at a slower pace than I am used to.
It's a relief that they don't need me to intervene and tell them what to do all the time because I just can't keep up with what I have now.
