Julia looks hard at the frame below. We were looking again for brood or young larvae of any age or queen cells. It makes no biological sense for the hive to have split without leaving resources for those left behind to make a queen.
We did find some queen cups on the bottoms of two different frames. However, these had not been capped and had no larvae in them.
The bees are building lovely white new wax on our foundationless frames.
Julia added a frame of brood and eggs from one of her home hives to give these girls a chance to make a queen and survive as a hive.
We then moved to my hive and I opened it to find pretty much the same thing.
Brood had emerged, showing where the football pattern had been but no new brood or eggs were to be found.
I only had a small medium frame of brood and eggs at home, so I put it into the deep box and crossed my fingers.
Now we'll leave these hives alone for about three weeks to let them make a queen cell and get the queen out and about. We'll check the top box to add supers, but will not go in unless there's an extremely good reason. This allows the bees to make a new queen, get her hatched and mated before we come knocking again.
Linda,
ReplyDeleteJust a word of encouragement, sometimes it seems that we fall short in beekeeping but right now all over the country seasoned beekeepers are having a hard time. Many in my area have lost half or all this past winter. By what I see, you are doing well. Do not give up. I am right now without any bees and the local beekeeper that was to give me some last year has had a bad winter with bees. Smile, your bees look good and have very nice comb. I was feeling very discouraged about beekeeping thinking that I was not to be one but a friend of mine encouraged me. So, I am trying to encourage you. Hope I did.
snmyork on beemaster
Oh I hope it works!
ReplyDelete"I only had a small medium frame of brood and eggs at home, so I put it into the deep box and crossed my fingers."
ReplyDeleteBuy a queen! Do not wait so long!