Admittedly not a well informed opinion, but I’m on a rant against shipped
in bees.
I think we are paying a lot for inferior stock, or at least unproven
stock. Prices have doubled in my short involvement and that can’t be good
for the quality of the stock.
Can one really expect a lot of success when bees are uprooted from their
home and shipped, often under climatic duress, over the road, in a rough riding
truck, for hours.
The more I think about it, the sillier it seems. Then, of course,
they are expected to work together and support a new queen who’s been cooped up
in a tiny cage for days and days!
Of course it works sometime. Maybe it even works often, but in ten
years of trying, I had only one or two decent hives. Most of the packages
I bought never really did well.
I had sellers admit their bees had been overheated and/or rained on, but
they never offered a refund or reduction!
I’m trying again this year, but only because I went to where a nuc was set
up and saw a busy queen with many eggs and larvae in evidence.
The queen was bought in, but from a nearby source, with no mailing
involved.
My bottom line is to pay the modest difference in cost for a nuc and make
sure it is functioning before you pay!
Mine is obviously thriving and I have added two medium supers.
I haven’t opened it in several weeks, but the bees are busy, flying out and
back, and generally looking good.
There seem to be orientation flights every afternoon.
OK, rant over.
I have always wanted more ventilation and now it seems to be getting more
popular to use a screened inner cover, along with a screened bottom board.
Now I can take off my outer cover and see the bees working in the top
super. It’s not built out yet, but it’s mobbed with bees!
I have built a stand and put the legs in oil, to keep out crawling things,
but have not treated, or even assessed the mite load yet...should be doing it
soon.
I have also put an old white bottom board on top of my hive, to help reduce
the temperature a bit, since it’s in full sun.
Good luck,
Wilson
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2014 7:43 PM
Subject: [ocba] Seeking queen
We're newbies who purchased two hives this spring. With one
of them, the new queen never really got going, so we combined the two which
worked well and then we did a split. The queen went to the new hive which
has been thriving, and we saw supercedure cells in the old one 3 weeks ago which
were empty two weeks ago but we checked again today and still no sign of queen
activity. The old hive also swarmed two weeks ago, which I don't understand
since there was lots of room and no swarm cells or signs of a queen, only the
possibility of an emerging one. We caught the swarm and put it in a new
hive but they didn't stick around. There is no brood left and we're thinking
it's a good idea to get a new queen. Who should we contact to get a new
one? Any other advice?
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