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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [ocba] Working from VSH nucs
  • Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 14:28:35 -0400

I would like some advice and possibly a more experienced set of eyes to look over my hives. I am a new beekeeper. I set up 2 hives two weeks ago with 5 frame nucs of VSH bees. Hive 1 seems to be doing OK. When I checked them last week with the assistance of a friend, who is in his second season of beekeeping, we saw foundation being drawn, some larvae, some stores, and some capped brood. We did not see the queen. This week when I inspected the hive there was more of the same, honey capped off, and many more bees so things seem to be progressing.

Hive 2 was another matter. Last week Hive 2 had significantly more bees than Hive 1, but no eggs, no larvae, and no brood. Again we did not see the queen. This week Hive 2 had only drawn out one side of one frame of foundation. There were still no eggs, no capped brood, only two cells of uncapped brood. Some honey had been capped. Still lots of bees, but no sign of a queen.

Hive 2 would appear to need a queen. Last week when I told my supplier what the first week's inspection showed he said he would send me a queen if this week's inspection still didn't show signs of eggs or brood.  So getting a new queen won't be a problem. But I am worried that I may currently have a sterile queen and that the colony won't accept a new queen until the old one is gone. How do I make sure that the old one is gone? I have only been able to spot a queen once in my short beekeeping career. I could very easily be missing this one.

If there is an experienced beekeeper close to Carrboro who could take a look through my hive I'd appreciate it. I'd hate to install a new queen only to have her mauled by the colony. If the hive is queenless then I assume the standard queen-in-a-cage released over a couple of days is the best approach to re-queening.

Any advice, assistance, etc. from the bee community would be appreciated.

-John 

John Rintoul
(919) 967-0674 (H)
(919) 414-4071 (M)

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