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Author Topic: Searching for a queen on blueberry hill  (Read 2655 times)

Offline Aaron B

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Searching for a queen on blueberry hill
« on: May 09, 2006, 06:31:04 pm »
Hello from Oregon,

    I just received my package bees five days ago. I live on a nice small organic farm/orchard on the oregon coast. There are many things flowering usaully until blackberries at the end of the berry season. I followed instructions and left the cage in the hive and seperated the two frames for the queen. The next day I fed them removed the cage and placed a marshmallow in place of the cork. After putting the feeder/top back on I noticed a marshmallow on the front of the bottom board. Not sure if i dropped one in the excitement I opened the lid again and went back to the queen box that was completely covered in bees again. The queen was still in there but i was still timid enough that I didn't want to handle all of those bees again.  I put the lid on again killing slightly less than the time before. The next day I removed the queen box which was empty and placed the pollen cake on top of the frames. Then the next day i refed bees and noticed a large clump of bees in the feed box hanging from the cover above the center and comb being built . I had more sugar syurp ready knocked bees off scraped comb off refed and closed up.  Today I checked again they are still clustered in the center of feed box cover but not building comb. I was going to check for the queen and make sure the frames were close enough together. There are many bees working the three frames closest to the sun. Unsure if I will injure the queen be recklessly removing the frames with all the bees I decided to ask someone.
 So my two questions Are:
I am checking to often?
HOw do I check the frames for the queen and should I wait a couple of days rather than finding out sooner?
  The bees are in a great place anyone willing to help me pull off a crash course in beekeeping we will both be thankful.
Aaron B

Online Michael Bush

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Searching for a queen on blueberry hill
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2006, 10:03:25 pm »
>I am checking to often?

Normally I'd say yes, but you say they were in the feeder building comb?  That means the queen is int he feeder.

Here's what happen in my feeder when they did that:

http://www.bushfarms.com/images/BroodNestInFeeder.JPG

>HOw do I check the frames for the queen and should I wait a couple of days rather than finding out sooner?

Don't check for the queen.  Check for eggs and brood while keeping an eye out for the queen.  If you see eggs, you're done.
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
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