[Hobie]

Went to check on the bees I moved from the abandoned house last month. When last I looked, they were 2 deeps, packed full of brood and honey. I added a shallow super with drawn comb.

This time: The shallow was completely empty still. Upper deep was darn near solid honey. Dang it, this meant I had to heft that one off of there to check below.

Lower deep: Honey in the corners of the frames. As I looked through frames: No brood. On about the 5th frame, I found a queen cell, not yet capped. At that point I stopped looking so as not to damage that or any other queen cell.

I'm batting zero on keeping queens alive. This is getting quite disheartening. I am wondering now about what another local beekeeper told me... that bees in my yard are doomed due to the proximity to the neighboring farm/shrub nursery and their herbicides and pesticides. Argh! That would mean they probably would have been fine if I hadn't moved them in the first place.

 

[BjornBee]

Yep, even before CCD (I'm not suggesting a connection) apiary location with regards to pesticides and chemicals were always a concern as far back a hundred years or more.

Today, beekeepers need to be very selective in where bees are placed. I'm picking new sites based on feild corn and soybean feilds. Both are huge problems with nionicotinoids. I have also seen some problems with spraying prior to "no-till" plantings. One day....a great place for bees....a couple days later, a barren brown waste land.

Hope you find a better place for your bees.

 

[Iddee]

# 1... If it is a viable queen cell, the queen was laying less than 10 days ago. There should be plenty of capped brood. I would go in and check the rest of the frames for brood.

# 2... Many times the bees will blame the queen for an upheaval, such as a cut out or similar, and supercede.

# 3... There are bees kept close to nurseries everywhere. If that were the problem, it would most likely show up as dead workers rather than queen problems. If it is truly queenless, you might want to get a local queen from someone like Bjorn.

 

[tecumseh]

a hobie snip...
Went to check on the bees I moved from the abandoned house last month. When last I looked, they were 2 deeps, packed full of brood and honey. I added a shallow super with drawn comb.

This time: The shallow was completely empty still. Upper deep was darn near solid honey.

tecumseh:
are you certain this hive did not swarm?

 

[Hobie]

Good point. It could have, but I did not see it.

If so, bummer. She was a wonderful queen.

For what it's worth, I found a dying drone in our parking area, somewhat away from the hive. Successful mating, perhaps?

 

[dogsoldier13]

welcome to the club

 

[G3farms]

Successful mating, perhaps?

did he still have his manhood intact?

G3

 

[Hobie]

Can't say that I looked!

 

[tecumseh]

G3 writes:
did he still have his manhood intact?

tecumseh:
oh man that hurts.... but none the less a good question. nice lookin' dog.