We're first time beekeepers, so please bear with our newness and probably silly questions...Oh Such Drama!
We received our bees on Thursday 4/8 in Central TX. We placed them in our brand new top bar hive and all appeared to be peachy. We took the empty queen box out on Saturday.
On Sunday afternoon (4/11), we noticed a big blob of bees (roughly a foot in diameter) about 15 ft from the hive. Upon further investigation, we found the queen in the blob - we put her back in the hive.
On Monday afternoon (4/12), we noticed a small blob of bees (about 4 inches in diameter) about 5 feet from the hive, and found the queen in that pile as well... we put her back in the hive.
The next morning, we pulled the hive about 2 feet further into the sun & out of the shade, we also changed the type of sugar water we were offering. (from an all natural cane sugar to turbinado/regular blend).
Friday (4/16) We looked for the queen on Friday, but did not find her. Comb production and honey was progressing nicely, but I didnt't see any eggs or brood.
Today, Monday (4/19) we did a thorough inspection of the hive and found the queen (thank heavens for that giant green dot!) - 4 bars into the hive, right where I'd expect her to be , but we did not find any eggs in the combs of the 3rd, 4th or 5th bars. They are going through a quart jar of honey every two days, and they are bringing in lots of pollen.
I realize we're not quite at the two week mark, but could they have been trying to tell us the queen was defunct when she left/got thrown out...? Could there be another queen in the hive that we haven't been able to see? Shouldn't we be seeing eggs by now?
Any advice/bee psychology would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Cheryl