I received a package of bees the otherday and I don't think my queen is
doing well. Four days after installing the bees seem very mad and confused
"UNORGANIZED" they are hanging out on the hive and not going anywhere. I
pulled queen cage out the otherday and she was not in it so I assumed she
was released. The bees have defecated a lot as there is brownish gold color
droppings everywhere on the hive. But, like I said the bees don't appear to
be moving away from the hive as my other bees are out taking in all the
dandelions. I have them on plenty of syrup let me note that I am using
pierco frames that are new and were sprayed with syrup prior to the
installation. I installed them on a cool day 45+ degrees so I put the whole
package in pulling five frames out to accommodate the install. After
removing the queencage and package I closed off everything and visited them
again yesterday in nice weather and I expected them to be foraging however
they were just hanging on the hive. I was thinking this was a long time for
flight orientation for them. Another funny thing is that they seem to be
using the upper entrance "notch in the inner cover" more than any other hive
I have.
I looked at them last night for the first time and went I opened the hive
the bees were everywhere! They had not started building any comb! I mean
they where everywhere no organization just a mess! I was going to look for
the queen but with all of them in my face and everywhere I just shut the
top. One hour later I took a frame of broad from another hive to see if
that will calm them down. I will check today to see if they cluster around
the broad and maybe look for the queen.
Does this appear that I have lost my queen?
Help! Any ideas?