Friday, May 3, 2013

Where's hive two's queen?

Collected pollen in comb
Hive 1- inspected 5 days ago.  Did not spot queen but lots of brood and larvae in top brood box.
Hive 2- took a look 2 days ago.  Did not spot queen.  There was some capped brood that was hatching, lots of empty cells, no larvae or eggs.  This was the hive that had swarmed, so it had had to have a new queen.  Since they swarm before the new queen hatches, there will be some delay until she starts laying.  I did see one torn open queen cell.  
http://www.tackletour.net/temp/images2012/picredwoodcitybretharte120407a.jpg
Mine looked just like this
I wondered:  was she dead?  Had she been eaten while out of the hive to mate?  Has she successfully mated and not yet started laying?  This morning I read in Keeping Bees by Franklin Carrier that one should wait 3-4 weeks after swarming to check for a laying queen.  I looked after only 12 days, so I'll be patient and wait another 2 weeks.
I put sticky boards in a couple of days ago.  I had made a new one for hive 3.  I also made one for Olea's hive.  I foolishly inserted it to check for size and was rewarded by very angry bees and two stings.  I'd had to run into the house to get away.  Later, I put on my bee suit to slide the plastic sheet into the hive.  After it was in, I realized that since it was now the floor of the hive, it shouldn't be sticky.  I took it out, washed it off and re-inserted it.  The bees were initially confused about the altered appearance of their doorway.
End of non-sticky board at hive entrance
 The Vivaldi box arrived.  It was painted and now is in place on hive 3 with a top feeder inside and the entrance feeder removed.

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