Queen Replaced

I spoke with Tom at Bee Genetics on Monday. When I described the problem of no queen seen and no apparent brood cells, he wasn't too concerned. When I mentioned the two queen cells, he immediately said he would send a replacement queen.
The queen arrived Wednesday in her cage with about a half dozen workers. Because of work schedules, I wouldn't be able to inspect the hive with an experienced keeper until two days later. I wanted to be sure that my hive was queenless before putting in a new queen, of course. Here Kathy and I are looking vainly for the old queen. No queen, no brood and unhappy workers. We put the caged queen in the hive between two frames. We wanted to look in three days to make sure she was out; if not, she would need to be hand released. Once again my work schedule interfered with my bee schedule. Kathy offered to look for me, which she did today. The queen was out. Whew!

Bee suit

I wanted to have a good bee suit that I felt protected in so that I could go into the hive with confidence and therefore calmly. My cobbled together suit was hot, the wrong color, difficult to put on and give not much feeling of security. If you couldn't tell, the makeshift suit is on the left. On the right is the new Ultra Breeze suit. I read online multiple discussions regarding bee suits, and consistently, the Ultra Breeze was considered the best, albeit expensive. What sold me was one keepers comment that he hasn't been stung once with this suit. Now at least I can calmly focus on the task of inspecting the hive.

Disaster!

I went into the hive today. There was no brood, only lots of capped honey. The bees were restless, too. I saw two empty queen cells in the middle of the comb. No queen seen. I immediately posted a message to the Santa Cruz Bee Keepers Guild asking for help. I got one response- to wait one more week. I didn't like that suggestion and called Tom at Bee Genetics, but he won't be in until Monday. I also contacted the bee keeper who taught a one-day class on beekeeping that I had taken at Cabrillo College. She said that maybe there was brood and that one doesn't always see the queen. We arranged for her to inspect my hive with her next week. Now all I can do is fret.

First inspection

May 7, 2011

Time for first inspection of the hive, one week after getting bees. Wearing a cobbled together bee suit (note duct tape). I was nervous about protection from stings. Looked at two frames. Saw the queen walking around and removed the empty queen cage. Saw comb being made. There was some nectar and pollen. Couldn't identify any eggs.
Feeding the bees with 1:1 sugar water using the entrance feeder. They are drinking nearly a quart a day! We needed a trip to Costco for a 25-pound bag of sugar.