BEE-L Archives

Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
GImasterBK <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 5 May 1998 23:19:10 EDT
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (18 lines)
Greg:  You have a major problem, and it is NOT swarming.  Are you sure the
cells of the face of the comb are emergency cells rather than drone cells?
When a hive becomes queenless (as yours is), the bees will usually pick just
one or maybe 2 larvae to convert to queens in Emergency Cells on the comb
face.  However, if you had a laying worker, she would scatter eggs around
rather than in a pattern, and of course these unfertilized eggs can only
develop into drones.
     You installed these bees on 4/18 which is 17 days ago.  Almost half of
your purchased bees are already dead; and the rest will all be dead  in about
3-4 weeks.  Even if you got a new queen tomorrow,  I doubt that there will be
enough bees to nurse the queen's new brood.  This group of bees is not worth
saving, better to start over with all new fresh stock.
     You did not mention any sugar syrup.  Are you feeding 1:1 syrup?  Too
many beekeepers fail to give bees a good start by  feeding them continuously
for 2-3 months.
     This is the best I can say with the meager information you wrote.
Good Luck!          George

ATOM RSS1 RSS2