Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: randydrivesabus on May 03, 2006, 06:29:31 pm
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so i just did my second hive inspection. they are building comb. i see pollen in the comb. and i see some of the cells in the comb are filled with clear liquid.
i saw the queen in one hive last week but not this week and i saw the queen from the other hive today but not last week. they are marked or it would be hopeless for me to find them.
i still havent been stung.
so i cant tell if the queens are laying eggs or not but i guess things are going like they should be.
each hive has consumed a little more than a quart of 1:1 since sunday.
o...btw...the original installation took place on 4/24 so its been a week and 2 days so far.
any comments would be appreciated.
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Here's what I saw in my inspection 4 days after installation. (I was going in to check just to see if the queens had been released, cause there was no candy and I had stuff a marshmallow in the hole.)
Hive 1 I definitely saw eggs. Just look for very tiny grain of rice, tiny, tiny. (They are hard to see for 40-year-old types with their near-sightedness going!) But you can definitely see them.
Hive 2 I'm not sure if I saw them or not. (It could have been the queen was not out long enough to get going.) Probably not... So....
But I was surprised at how easy it was to see the queens in both hives (Carnolians sp?). They stuck out like sore thumbs. I saw them on the second or thrird frame of each.
Sounds like everything else you described is like my starts. Drawing plenty of comb, eating the syrup at about the same rate, pollen, etc.
Quint
So next time you
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so maybe its these 56 year old eyes that are the problem. i even wore my reading glasses under my veil but they arent what they used to be either. i guess i need new ones.
another factor has been the cool weather around here. which is not predicted to warm up any time soon.
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Randy within another week you should bee seeing brood at later stages of development, larvae curled up in cells, capped brood, etc. . . Eggs can be very hard to see sometimes. After you see them once, you will know what to look for again though, it becomes much easier after that.
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so maybe its these 56 year old eyes that are the problem. i even wore my reading glasses under my veil but they arent what they used to be either. i guess i need new ones.
Eggs are very hard to see in newly drawn combs. Once your combs raise a few cycles of brood and the comb darkens, the eggs are much easier to spot, especially if you hold them in the sunlight. I know this isn't much help now, but it will get easier down the road.
For now, just give it time and when the larvae starts growing, you'll see them. The fact that they are storing pollen and nectar are good signs. Just sit tight :D
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thanks for the words of encouragement. i will check again in a week. dont want to disturb them more often than that.
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Here's what I saw in my inspection 4 days after installation. (I was going in to check just to see if the queens had been released, cause there was no candy and I had stuff a marshmallow in the hole.)
Hive 1 I definitely saw eggs. Just look for very tiny grain of rice, tiny, tiny. (They are hard to see for 40-year-old types with their near-sightedness going!) But you can definitely see them.
Hive 2 I'm not sure if I saw them or not. (It could have been the queen was not out long enough to get going.) Probably not... So....
But I was surprised at how easy it was to see the queens in both hives (Carnolians sp?). They stuck out like sore thumbs. I saw them on the second or thrird frame of each.
Sounds like everything else you described is like my starts. Drawing plenty of comb, eating the syrup at about the same rate, pollen, etc.
Quint
So next time you
Qandle
Welcome to the board. Good to see someone from Orem here. I grew up in Orem and am an MVHS and UVSC alum. Am now in Cache Valley. There are a few other utah beeks here that have been very helpful to me. Again, welcome!
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so i just did my 3rd inspection and i definitely saw some uncapped brood so it looks like things are going well. i have yet to be stung and feel like i should encourage it. maybe i'll go smokeless and short sleeved next time around.
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so i just did my 3rd inspection and i definitely saw some uncapped brood so it looks like things are going well. i have yet to be stung and feel like i should encourage it. maybe i'll go smokeless and short sleeved next time around.
Come on tough guy go shortless too :shock:
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I know what Randy means though. I haven't been stung yet either and i almost want it to hurry up and happen to get the first one over with.
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Hey guys are we getting into a double dog dare ya here? If so I use to inspect my bees in my swimming trunks but back then I was 14 and stupid. I didn't get stung either.
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I just had to chime in on this...in a state of giddy optimisim I did my second inspection of the season (two 8 frame hives) in shorts and a t-shirt with no veil. It was hot and..well, I just didn't feel like putting my gear on. Everything went smoothly, no stings or even any agitation until I was walking away. I got stung 4 or 5 times, all from bees that had crawled up my sleeves and up my short's legs and had presumably become panicked due to being restricted. I don't react at all to stings but for someone who does, keeping sleeves and legs, neck, etc sealed is probably more important than worrying about bare skin showing.
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Call me sissy but I'll keep on wearing my suit.... 8)
You never know when something weird may happem and you take a lot of stings. Better hot than hurt.... :wink:
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just finished another inspection. i was in long sleeves and long pants and veil and smoker. used minimal smoke. did not get stung.
the hives look like they are doing very well. brood in both and saw some empty cells that look like newbees came out of. i took the syrup jar away from the stronger hive since it was empty but i will not fill it again. the weather is supposed to be nice for the next few days and there should be plenty of nectar. i forgot to count how many frames were drawn out but they are making some progress. i put an empty frame in the midst of the full ones.
i left the almost full jar in the weaker hive but i took away the entrance reducer. last time i looked the population in this hive seemed to be dwindling but today it looks like its maintaining the same number. so next time i reckon it will look increased. i saw some drone cells in the weaker hive but not many.
i wish i had a few more hives to play with.