What say you??? checked my bees and....

[tmrschessie]

Top brood  box was full of honey, found several good frames of brood, one had the start of a queen cell near the center. There was some comb built between two of the frames that was ALL drones...about the size of a business envelope. This fell out when I lifted the frame. There were more drone cells on the main part of the frame. I did not see the queen.
I only saw the one partially built queen cell.  Both brood boxes appeared to have plenty of bees. This was early in the morning and the work force had not left yet.

Not sure since I did not see eggs what is going on as there was brood.?? Tom

[Perry]

You'll have to go back in for another look Tom.
I was through a bunch yesterday, and found 2 drone layers. 1 I found one queen and pinched her, the other I went through twice and missed her. I found single egss, no multiples, and what looked like the beginings of queen cells. They had larvae in them but I removed them as they clearly wouldn't be viable. I will try finding her again, but if I can't, I will not bother re-queening it as they recognize something in there and would probably off any new queen. I will just move a frame with eggs in and see what they do.

[tbonekel]

That's a good one. It sounds a little like one of my hives except minus the honey. Did you see eggs? Maybe the queen is in the bottom box.

They had larvae in them but I removed them as they clearly wouldn't be viable.

Hey Perry, are you saying that because of the size of the cell that the larvae is in? I have gotten pretty good and knowing the difference in cell size between drone and worker and when inspecting yesterday, I saw eggs in both cell sizes. I would be more concerned with my queen if I saw eggs in the larger cells, but I see eggs and various ages of larvae in the smaller cells, I think it's okay. I have a few frames (foundationless) that is half drone and half worker. Would you just cut out that side of the frame that has drone?

[iddee]

""Not sure since I did not see eggs""

""I saw eggs in both cell sizes""

Did you or did you not see eggs?

[Perry]

Sorry Tbone, I wasn't clear enough. 
In my case, all I had were drone cells being raised with a couple of queen cells well underway. The question becomes, how can these queen cells be viable if there are no other signs of fertilized eggs, only unfertilized ones? Given that there is only drone brood and no worker brood, I believe it is a pretty safe bet these cells are no-go's.
The size of the cell that you see an egg in does not always translate into what will be raised in that cell. You will often see drone brood raised in a regular sized worker comb, they will just extend the cell to accomodate the drone larvae resulting in those raised bullet shaped domes.

[LazyBkpr]

Two different posters Iddee..  go get the morning coffee and the reading glasses...
   For the record I had to go back and look because it confused me...

[tmrschessie]

Ok thanks for the replys...will go back in as it warms up a bit. Tom

[pistolpete]

It's perfectly normal for wild comb to be all drone sized.  By providing worker foundation, we deprive the bees of the ability to raise as many drones as they would like.  Eggs and queens are both easy to miss, so like perry said, look again with good light and maybe a magnifying glass.

[tbonekel]

Tom, I'm sorry if I hijacked a little.  Sometimes it's hard to put together the puzzle pieces to figure out the situation that your hive is in. I have a hive that is similar so ?

[iddee]

All I can say is OOOOPPPSSSS!!!

[tmrschessie]

Checked them again this morning. Found capped brood and eggs in the second deep. Still did not find the queen. I know she is a small one but could not find her. There were several frames with comb built between the frames and she could very well have been between the layers of comb. I added a third deep to give the bees more room to expand. There were a couple of frames of capped pollen by the looks of it. And several areas with uncapped pollen. They had done very little work on the two honey suppers I had placeed on them but have every other frame in both boxes drawn out. Still did not find any capped queen cells. With the amount of brood and eggs I believe the current queen is still good to go for some time. Tom

[riverbee]

tom, as long as you see eggs, and you have a good brood pattern, there really is no need to find your queen.  also, did you replace the 2 honey supers on top of the 3rd deep?  is the 3rd deep foundation or drawn comb? 

[efmesch]

I certainly sounds like you've got a good queen   present in your hive.  For your all around conveniencce, it might be wise to move the box with the eggs to the bottom position.  Be careful to use as little smoke as possible when doing this procedure, so that the queeen stays where she is. If you succeed in getting her down below, after all the brood above hatches out, you should be able to get solid frames of honey.  The question as to whether or not to use a queen excluder to keep her down below is a matter of your choice in hive management.

[tmrschessie]

There was brood in both the top and bottom box so I did not rotate them. Only saw eggs in the top box.

Yes I put the honey supers back on top of the third deep.  The third deep is a mixture of old drawn comb and some new wax sheets. Tom

[riverbee]

i dunno ef, a good suggestion, but with 3 deeps on now, i would be inclined to leave well enough alone and not rotate any boxes, might squash or injure her in the process.  she will lay up in the 3rd deep somewhat and move back down.  tom, the bees will ignore the supers until they need the space.  they will be filliing out your third deep first, before filling any super.

[tmrschessie]

Riverbee that is ok with me if they fill the third deep first. That means they will have plenty of stores and should be plenty strong enough to split next spring. Or this fall if I have to use some of them to beef up the trap out/soon to be a cut out I am working on. Tom

[riverbee]

you ought to be good to go with that tom, if your queen is a good layer, she'll make a nice divide for you, and if you get some good flows, a good honey production.  i have one hive now, we placed a third deep on ourselves and placed some honey frames in to tie them over until the dandelions bloom, coming here shortly.  queens don't arrive until june 5th, she will be divided then.  we will place a super on this weekend for the upcoming flow.  the queen is laying like crazy, so should get some good honey out of this one and a good divide or a couple nucs.  good luck, keep us posted!

[tmrschessie]

The dandelions have been in full bloom for about 2 weeks here.  Some have already turned to seed. The apple tree is in full bloom. I just mowed around the area where the bees are kept and will be planting that into Golden Rod. There are several Mulberry trees close by that will be blooming soon and wild plums that just finished blooming. The bees have been going to a Locust tree also. Plus every thing in the front yard will be blooming by the June/July time right on through the fall. I believe when I get the Golden Rod planted in the bee yard that will really help them in the fall. I will keep you informed on the progress of my slow but steady effort to reinstate Honey Bees in this area...Tom