I have received many responses both on and off list and want to
thank everyone. Here's a summary and the latest.
        Several people told me to stop feeding the bees. Most people
suggested I get in that hive and see if the queen has been superceded.
Some said that Buckfast queens get superceded from time to time even soon
after an introduction. There was talk about weather.
        Well, I went into the hive yesterday with a friend. (Just for
information's sake the weather has been, was, and continues to be perfect.
High pressure, sunny, no wind to speak of, not at all humid, mid 80s.)
        The top shallow super's foundations are still undrawn, the second
one down is quite full, mostly capped. Several responders mention of
course, that will all the feeding I have been doing (in my perhaps naive
attempt to help them draw comb), I probably have a super filled with
concentrated sugar syrup rather than real honey.
        In any case, my friend (who is an experienced beekeeper, although
a much more hands-off kind of beekeeper) gave them all a very good bit of
smoke. Perhaps that was one of my mistakes, although I do remember several
list folk here saying that you should give them just a bit, never too
much. I think I was being too kind to them, not wanting to "bother" them
too, too much.
        Well, now the real point. We found the old queen. There she was,
blue dot and all. No queen cells anywhere, although there was a good bit
of burr comb (one responder said that his Buckfasts always seem to build a
lot of brace comb and are just good comb builders in general).
        There was a good bit of honey in the outer frames and the tops of
the inner frames of the top brood chamber (I have two deeps for brood).
There was capped brood here and there (some small amount of it drone),
lots of pollen. I didn't see what I would have expected to be the
wonderful pattern of brood that all the books say is optimal.
        Several people have said that I should think about re-queening.
That of course was before I knew that there has in fact been no
supercedure. Then again, perhaps I should requeen because of their
attitude, or because she is not working as well as she might. I guess the
question becomes "when?" Now, later nearing the fall?
        Finally, I am unsure as to why they refuse to draw the foundation
in the top super? Plenty of room up there, and yet there is more honey
than I would expect (given my lack of experience) in the top of the brood
area, I thought I remember reading here that the bees will move the honey
up to make more room for the queen to lay. Have they given up on her? If
so, why are there no queen cells?
 
        I wanted to catch everyone up on the situation. I thought the fact
that I found the queen would at least put to rest the possibility of
supercedure many were suspecting as the cause for the attitude change. I
have, however, seem to have wound up bothering you all with more
questions.
 
        As many before me here have said, I find this list to be a wealth
of information, knowledge and experience. So, once again, I thank you all.
 
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|              Alan Pagliere               |
|              Ann Arbor, MI               |
|               734-647-8000               |
|             [log in to unmask]           |
|     http://www.umich.edu/~pagliere/      |
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