Prodigious Red Oak Bee Tree

[blueblood]

Removed the nuc from my workshop (see Hotel Blueblood thread).  Took them to the main yard which is a 1/4 mile behind my house.  Quickly put a nuc bench together as you can see I didn't get the blocks set very well.  Let them loose and checked the queen cells.  It is day 11 since placing the eggs in nuc.  I discovered they chewed the rubber bands and the portion of comb with the queen cells fell.  However, all was good and I carefully banded it back.  I can for sure see two queen cells.  There is some other stuff going on in the cells such as drone cells.  Those would have came from the original and missing queen.

[blueblood]

[LazyBkpr]

   Oh yeah.. those are some dark sexy looking bees..  Interested to see what this queen is going to look like!

[blueblood]

   Oh yeah.. those are some dark sexy looking bees..  Interested to see what this queen is going to look like!

Me too! The eggs came from my best hive.  The queen in that hive was big and orange.

[jb63]

Thx for sharing about using a small piece of comb with eggs.That's a good trick to know.Good thread Blue.

[blueblood]

Thanks! But, I learned that trick from ole Iddee.  Credit goes there.

[blueblood]

I WAS VERY PLEASED TO FIND A QUEEN!!    I pulled the frame with the 4 queen cells on it.  2 were now open.  Next, I started looking for the queen on the first frame which is full of capped honey.  If I don't see the queen focusing in micro, I back up to macro and let her unique movement cacth my peripheral view. I found here boot skootin along.  She is beautiful!  Dark tiger stripes.  THEN, she flew off!!    The timing of her arrival would make sense that she needs to mate.  I thought maybe she flew off to take care of business.  I put the frame back in and came back later.  I found her again, whew!  But, I may have seen another queen.  Seems like one was smaller than the other.  Makes sense, there are two open cells.  I was about to close up the nuc when I heard a bunch of piping coming from the first frame.  I moved my camera as close as I could.  I may post the video on this thread or start another one.  Here are some vids and pics from today.

[Perry]

The queen in picture #3 looks different than the ones in pictures #2 and #5 to me.

[blueblood]

I agree Perry.  The lighting may be playing tricks on my eyes though.

[Perry]

Abdomen on #3 looks longer.

[blueblood]

Very, Very possible that there are two.  There were two open cells which our around 24 hours from being open before the other.  I added the eggs on the 6th of April.  It's been 17 days.

[G3farms]

So that should mean they have been hatched out for about three days.

[Jen]

Good Gravy! There is an enormous amount of information on this thread. I think I'll keep ya around Blue! 

[efmesch]

1. As any policeman worth his badge knows---the secret to success is in the timing.      Great going Dave!!! And such terriffic pics....

2. From the behavior of that single bee, determinedly following at the tip of the queen's abdomen and the other bees pretty much ignoring her, I would think that she had just come home from a mating flight.

[blueblood]

Hello my friend Ef! I noticed that little determined follower.  It was akin to a dog sniffing another's bottom.    Interesting point and observation.  That makes complete sense.  Behaviors of bees is the most intriguing part for me.  The more time I spend and patience I spend with them, the more wonderful things I discover.