Hive Check : June 15th : Unattended Queen and a possible swarm

pic 1 - Brown hive : spotty laying pattern, some capped drone

pic 2 Brown hive :

queen with no attendants

Here is video of the queen

pic 3 Brown hive :

some frames with hardly any drawn comb

pic 4 blue hive

some drawn comb

pic 5 Blue hive

extra comb needing to be removed

pic 6 Blue hive

empty comb

pic 7 Blue hive

capped honey and empty comb

pic 8 Blue hive

larvae - need to see if it turns out to be drone brood or not

Hive Check : June 7th : They keep me on my toes

My package hive Queen is still there - but today I noticed that she wanders around pretty aimlessly.  I didn't see her lay any eggs and I also noticed that the workers that are supposed to be surrounding her and taking care of here were not doing that with any regularity.  So I have a Queen, but is she going to do her part to keep this hive from taking a nose dive this winter.  She needs to figure it out...or maybe I need to do something differently?? 

I ended up putting on a second super with frames and foundation and I also put two baggies of simple syrup on top.  I have decided to send my mentor an email to make sure I'm doing the right things. 

The nuc colony is doing alright, but I didn't see their Queen.  I also noticed a distinct lack of larvae, both capped and uncapped.  This turn of events alarms me because recently I had whole frames of capped larvae.  Instead of feeling confident about this hive I am finding that now IT is the source of my concern.   Some little bugger decided to sting my upper thigh today, it really didn't hurt - cross your fingers that it doesn't swell up! On a positive note, I did see a lot of capped honey. 

Hive Check : June 4th, I found my Queen

I immediately saw the Queen when I pulled up this frame.  All my worry and searching are gone.  I got misty eyed, it was a good few minutes as I watched her surrounded by her attendants.  She's a graceful creature, she's so important.  Merging my two hives is now a thought from the past.  For the time being, both hives are doing fine.  This package colony is still very weak and hasn't had the numbers to build out the last frames on each side with comb yet.  Now that I can confirm that there IS a Queen maybe the hive will grow.  I'm going to see if I can't find a pollen patty to put in there and will also be putting in another baggie of sugar water to stimulate the colony.

Hive Check : Cell anomalies and bee births (May 25th check date)

On May 25th I did a check on my hives.  I wanted desperately to find the package hive's queen so that I could put this issue to rest.  I didn't find her, again.  What I did find were some anomalies in the cells.  The center of the top left photo contains a larvae that is not bright white an shiny like it's supposed to be.  It is somewhat shiny but it's not the right color. The top right photo has an unknown substance inside it.  The bottom right photo is of a frame that has drone cells all over it.  Drone cells are usually laid on the outer edge of a frame with worker cells in the middle.  The bottom left photo is another angle to illustrate the cappings.  I really wanted to reach out to my mentor but decided against it.  I want to learn all I can by observing and researching on my own.  The reason you don't see a lot of bees on the frames in these pictures is because I gently shook them off into the box (super).  I wanted to be able to take the photos with fewer obstacles in my way.

                 

There was good news this day though and all was not lost.  I got to see some more bees being born which is always such a fulfilling experience.  The one bee butt you see is probably from a bee cleaning out a cell.  Once they free themselves from their cell they are required to clean it out and prepare it for the next generation.