[log in to unmask] said: > c.) Usually bees know a lot of things newbeekeeper (like me) are just > learning. To which Thomas Cornick said: ... 2 kinds of beekeepers those who fight the bees and those who give the bees what they want. I can appreciate these comments so much being a first year beekeeper, but along with those remarks would like to add that I have learned so much in the last week or so by being diligent and taking the extra time to visit and inspect my hives thoroughly on a host of days. Briefly, I picked up 4 nuc hives several weeks ago -- in the first ten days, two hives completely lacked any newly laid eggs. I suspected that the queens were lost in the bee transfer and ordered two new queens. As soon as the queens were released, they ended up being killed by the queens that were in the last throws of supercedure. LESSON for the newbie beekeeper: I should have inspected each frame completely for queen cells and I would have figured it out. My two other hives were packages several months back. One queen quit laying and I was able to install a new queen by killing the old one. They had balled the old queen, which I asked about on this noble list and received several helpful opinions about. I saved my new queen by locating the one queen cell getting ready to pop, along with any cups. My other package queen suddenly disappeared and I have about 8 queen cells ready to pop in that hive. Why the presumably recent queens were replaced has been answered by this list in the past week or so --- it just happens (much of the time). If I hadn't had my new queens marked, I wouldn't know that they weren't the same queens. A HUMBLE POINT: for the newbie beekeepers in the audience, the fact that I had worked with a commercial beekeeper for several weeks provided the initial knowledge and courage to jump in and work the hives to the point of understanding what was going on. By returning several times in a week of hive mystery, I was able to comprehend and then work the situation, so that IN COOPERATION WITH THE BEES, I now can guide and assist them in what they do. But certainly, like a queen bee, I have found out that the workers, ruling together as a colony, are the boss. By not being timid about inspecting each hive completely many times, I have gained a tremendous education and will be much more successful about helping them to survive and not getting in their way otherwise. Bees are the coolest. [log in to unmask]