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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Jane Saiers <jane.saiers AT gmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [ocba] Bee Advice Requested
  • Date: Sun, 9 May 2010 09:49:52 -0400

Hi OC Beekeepers,
 
My husband and I are new beekeepers, and we got two packages on 10 April. Neither of the hives seems to be doing well.
 
Hive 1: In the Benton box that we received with the package, we could clearly identify the queen. As far as we know, package installation went fine. When checking the frames on 30 April, we saw eggs laid singly in cells and some larvae. We also saw what we thought might be a supercedure cell or an emergency cell. It was a large cell (that had been opened) that was in the midst of the other cells (not on the bottom like a swarm cell). We identified the queen in one of the middle frames. Even to us as newbies, the queen was clearly identifiable.
 
The next time we checked the frames was this morning, 9 May. When checking the frames this morning, we saw (1) eggs, most of which were laidly singly in cells (but a couple of cells had more than one egg); (2) larvae (here and there, but not groups of larvae in contiguous cells as we see in pictures in the bee books); and (3) what we think are capped drone brood as well as some drone brood that had been opened. The capped and opened drone brood were not on the perimeter of the brood area, though --- they were interspersed throughout the egg-laying/larvae area. Also, the capped and opened drone brood were not in clusters but were as single cells here and there. ***As far as we can see, there was NO capped worker brood.*** (Could these cells be emergency cells and not drone worker brood?)  We could not find the queen this morning although it is certainly possible that she was there and too surrounded by other bees for us to identify her.
 
Hive 2: In the Benton box that we received with the package, we could not clearly identify a queen, so we were a little concerned from the start. As far as we know, package installation, including release of the bee(s) from the Benton box, went fine. However, this hive has never "taken off." We have at most two frames with bees. Through today (9 May), we have not found a queen and have no brood. Just capped honey and nectar/uncapped honey.
 
Any advice that you can offer will be much appreciated! We are really growing to love these little bees and want them to be okay!
 
Jane Saiers



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