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Date: | Mon, 1 Jul 1996 08:28:36 EST |
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Kevin and Shawna Roberts, amoung others, returned my post,
writing:
"What you describe is similar to what I often see in a hive a
few weeks after it swarms. The last offspring from the old
queen have emerged, but the new queen (assuming one is there)
has not yet begun to lay. If the bees are behaving normally,
then they likely have a virgin or a newly-mated queen.
This period should only last a week or so. If you don't have
eggs by then, you probably don't have a queen."
Well, the answer to my previous concern about the lack of ANY
eggs or brood was nailed by this group. When I reinspected the
hive this past weekend, the lower brood chamber was still empty
of brood and no sign of any queen. I had made up my mind to
use a spare nuc to requeen but decided to inspect the upper
brood chamber first.
The first frame I pulled was the second frame from the edge
and it was FULL, cell to cell, top to bottom, side to side with
eggs - one to a cell. (OK, so I exaggerate, but I was so
excited to see eggs, it seemed that way. There WAS a lot of
eggs and they were solid on both sides of the frame.) Most
were still sticking straight up so a queen had to be close.
So I started looking for her. She had been marked and
clipped when I purchased her this spring so I scanned for the
dot. Nothing. Then I saw a queen, not MY queen for this one
had two full wings and no marking, but she was big and fat and
calmly moving across the frames. It is clear that the hive
must have either swarmed or superceded the old (? I purchased
her this spring!) queen and the empty frames I saw last weekend
was a break in the brood cycle while the colony was adjusting
to the change. There were a lot (12+) open and empty queen
cups along the bottom of the frames that last week I had
attributed to emergency cells. The only thing that still
puzzles me somewhat is that I don't notice an appreciable
decrease in the number of bees in the hive, but perhaps I
wasn't as observant as I should have been before the swarm.
Thanks to all for your help. It is nice to know you all are
out there.
Mark Egloff
[log in to unmask]
P.S. Ether roll tests of the hives indicate no varroa...yet.
But I KNOW they are out there. I can feel them lurking in the
shadows watching with their beady little eyes. (Do varroa have
eyes?) I wonder if hanging a garland of garlic or a cross on
each of the hives will keep them out? It worked with
Dracula.;)
M.
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