Did my 3 week inspection today. Saw lots of larvae, had quite a bit of honey stored, but didn’t see the queen this time. Not too worried yet. I actually took my reading glasses this time and saw the larvae, but didn’t see any eggs, might not be sure just what to see yet even though I know they look like little rice seeds. I had a top hive feeder with the excluder below to keep the queen from drowning, then a spacer and a pollen patty on top of the frames. They keep building comb on top of the frames into the excluder and beyond. They keep filling it with honey (which was quit tasty!). There is still 2 frames that need filled out yet so I took the feeder and the excluder off to make them fill out the other 2 frames. We are in a pollen drought here now so I did put another pollen patty on top of the frames. Hopefully the alfalfa will start blooming this week or next so I can add the second brood box. Does this sound like I made the logical decision here or not? I did spray some sugar water on the 2 frames to get them going to them and turned the one frame around that had one side with 80% fresh comb and honey on it so the bare side was to the inside. Hope this will help to get them going. Any advice would be appreciated as I’m still learning here.
use this chart, If you see eggs or larvae after 10 days you have a queen. it is not that important to find the queen. One beekeeper on here that has been beekeeping for 15 years said, He has 10 hives and some of the Hives he will go years with out finding the queen.
I guess this is the reason it is suggested that going into your hive every 10 days to 14 days is why.
I’m guessing they were 8 day larvae, I did see the queen during last weeks inspection and the week before that. I just figured I missed her this time around. Sound like I’m doing the right thing?
P.S. I have been doing an inspection every Wednesday.
maybe a bit much, not sure. I will look for others to correct me. Every time you go into the hive you set them back a day or so. It is needed to go in and look but go in with a direct purpose. and finding the queen is not necessary.
Weekly inspections during swarming season here