During inspections today, Pat and I came to the conclusion that one of our hives is most likely queenless. Recently queenless based on the fact that there is still capped brood and we saw a couple of older uncapped larvae, but still. Not a single frame with eggs. More drone cells that we have previously seen at any point during the year (laying worker or too early for that??). Of equal concern - not a lick of honey in the hive. Lots of stored pollen, but no capped or uncapped honey. A good chunk of the cells in the hive are basically empty. It was kind of alarming, really. They now have a hive-top feeder with sugar syrup - they clearly need a boost. The only good news is that there are several queen cells - one that was built right between the top bars of two frames, a couple of queen cups in the center of frames and a few hanging from the bottoms of the frames. Several of these cells were full of white goo, which Im thinking was royal jelly to feed what I hope are larvae within. I couldnt see larvae in the uncapped cups, but they were full almost to the top with the thick white liquid. I chatted with my amazing been mentor today, who advised that bees have been doing this forever and know how to care for themselves - if there are full queen cups, let this run its course and let them re-queen their own hive. I see the wisdom in this. I understand this suggestion. My only nagging question that conflicts with this advice is the possibility of requeening from new stock. The only reason behind this thought is that this hive has been lagging behind all season long. We have jokingly been referring to them as the welfare hive. They just havent been productive like the other hive. Would adding new genetics to the colony help? Would purchasing an unrelated queen be any benefit to the colony? Would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 01:07:32 +0000
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