Hi -
 
It's a beautiful day here in southern California and I've just finished
checking my only hive that was started from a mail-order package three
weeks ago. Everything looked good - there were larvae and new bees exiting
cells. I have a few questions tho' -
 
There was alot of burr comb that I cleaned up. Most had honey but there
was also a few cells with larvae in them. I never saw the queen (although
I looked pretty hard) and after putting everything back together I began
to wonder whether I could accidentally harm her and how likely that might
be. I saw two very large clumps of bees and thought that perhaps that she
might be in one of those. Has anyone damaged a queen while servicing a
hive?
How do you know if you have? How long should I wait before re-entering the
hive?
 
Also, I had put two Apistan strips in the hive three weeks ago, but these
strips were from an opened package that had sat around for one year. I
replaced those two strips today with new strips (expensive! $22 here in
CA). Was that the right thing to do?
------------------
Richard
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www.primenet.com/~rspear