[Bee2]

Hello all!

I inspected my hive today and found it completely filled with honey.

I thought everything was going great as there is heavy traffic in and out of the hive.
My second deep was full of honey and I thought the queen just hadn't made it upstairs yet.
When I looked at the first deep today I found it full of honey as well (no brood or sign of a queen).
I marked my queen when I installed her and when I checked two weeks ago she was producing fine and the colony was growing.

I don't know what to do about this. This is my first hive.
I am a member of my local beekeeping club but it's a hundred miles from me and I don't have a beek mentor in my area.
My local(?) eqiupment supplier where I ordered my package and hive is 150 miles away from me and only open when I am at work. I took the day off work to pick up my package.

I'll call around and see I can find someone closer who can sell me a queen. If not, it'll have to be mail order.

I don't know what to do with a new queen since both deeps are filled with honey (no room for brood). I guess I have to get a new hive body as well.

I feel bad for not inspecting last week. I've enjoyed watching hundreds of bees come and go in my clover field; I thought everything was going well.

I put on a shallow super with that Bee-O-Pac thing over a queen excluder but they have rejected it.

I'm wishing I started two hives as many had suggested but my financial advisor disapproved my funding request...
And now I'm looking at the expense of a new queen and possibly more equipment potentially affecting where I sleep...

But I digress, back to my question:
What do you reccomend I do with a single queenless hive with two deeps full of honey and limited access to equipment?

I think I'm queenless. Is it possible she's on a break?

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
I want to be like you!

 

[Carolina-Family-Farm]

1# I would wait a day or two and re-inspect the hive, sometimes you see things you missed the first time.
2# Keep a sharp eye out for a young queen.
3# Re-queen if your sure its needed.
4# The bees will make space for the queen to lay.
5# There are several people here on Beesourse that sale quality queens.
Fatbeeman
CMQ
Bjornbee


Just to name a few.

[ June 10, 2006, 02:49 PM: Message edited by: Carolina-Family-Farm ]

 

[George Fergusson]

I replied in your other thread. Apparently you have been feeding them? Perhaps you overfed them and they filled the broodnest with syrup. It happens all the time. You may not be queenless. I'd stop feeding if you're still feeding, extract the syrup from a couple three combs in the middle of the deeps, or give them a couple of frames of foundation in a the middle of both deeps. They'll consume some syrup making wax and you might find eggs in 3-4 days.

 

[iddee]

>>>when I checked two weeks ago she was producing fine and the colony was growing.<<<

>>>When I looked at the first deep today I found it full of honey as well (no brood or sign of a queen).<<<

Something doesn't jive. It takes 3 weeks for workers to go from eggs to emerging. How could she be producing fine 2 weeks ago and have no queen now. I think 2 weeks ago you missed seeing queen cells and now you have a young queen that hasn't started laying. If you don't have empty frames to put in, I would harvest a couple of frames and put them back and wait another 2 weeks and check again. It sounds like a normal hive that has recently superceded or swarmed. A package or nuc will often supercede a few weeks after you purchase it.

 

[Michael Bush]

I don't think it's queenless. I think it swarmed and you have a virgin queen. A frame of brood would answer the question of whether it is queenless.

 

[Bee2]

I looked at my hive from the outside--it's very busy. There is plenty of bees coming and going.
It looks good from the outside.
About 2 in 100 bees are coming in with pollen.

What does "A frame of brood would answer the question of whether it is queenless." mean?
Is it see if they make a frame of brood or find a frame of brood and put it in the hive and see if they make a new queen?

I'm thinking my bees are just making a lot of honey. The population is really up.
I'm gonna wait until next weekend and see if things change.

 

[Michael Bush]

>What does "A frame of brood would answer the question of whether it is queenless." mean?

If you give them a frame of open brood and eggs they will either raise a queen or not. If they raise one, they were queenless. If not, they have a queen and she should be laying sometime in the next two weeks. If you want the "answer" to the question. Look at that frame 48 hours later and look for queen cells.

 

[JohnBeeMan]

>>>>Hello all! I inspected my hive today
>>>>What does "A frame of brood would answer the question of whether it is queenless." mean?

I think the problem is that Bee2 only has the one hive.

Bee2 - the suggestion was to obtain a frame of brood (with fresh eggs) from another hive and insert it into middle of the problem hive. If the hive is queenless they will start a queen cell from one of the new eggs.

Without this frame of brood, your options fall into:
1) wait to see if a new queen starts laying
or
2) order a new queen and introduce her slowly.

 

[Michael Bush]

If I only had one hive. I'd wait, because I think they swarmed and in two weeks I think you'll have a laying queen.

 

[Dwight]

I think you shuold extract all but a couple frames of honey and put the empty frames back on to give the queen room to lay.