Bees Backfilling and Created Swarm Cells

[carol08]

Yes you did and thank you. I’ve actually enjoyed watching that video about 4 times. She looks just like those queens. What I saw was a regular bee, not a queen, that was tumbling her out of the hive attacking her.

I don’t want to open the hive at this time in case there was a second emerged queen that also hatched and survived. So, I guess my plan will be after a couple weeks, I’ll start watching the activity at the entrance and see if there’s a sharp increase in the amount of pollen coming in and then I’ll check the demeanor of the hive to see if it’s calmed down. By then there should be some eggs being laid if there’s a new queen in the hive. At that time, I think it would be ok to take a look and see if the hive is back on track.

[JeffH]

Its Jeffs’ wife Wilma here.
The bee was not attacking the queen. It was just disposing of her, because she lost a battle with a stronger queen. This is called, natural selection.
It is best to leave the hive now for 21 days. Looking in could be detrimental to the victorious queen. The bees might ball, and kill her.

[carol08]

Hi Wilma, thanks, I plan on leaving them be for a while and see how things work out. Hopefully a new queen will be busy laying and the hive will be back on track.

[carol08]

@Dawn_SD @JeffH @Eva @chau06 Since you all were so kind and generous in helping me throughout my hive’s rocky start, I wanted to update you on its current status.

After seeing a new queen being tossed out of the hive, I waited the 21 days as suggested by Wilma (thank you Wilma!) before doing another inspection to see if it is now queen-right. I’m happy to say, I have a gorgeous blackish-brown queen laying and my bees couldn’t be more happy. The hive has eggs, larvae and a little capped brood. The bees are so docile now and their little voices are a soft hum.

I treated the hive with OA a few days ago (while very little capped brood) and all went well. Also had a wonderful, long-time beekeeper came by and went through the hive with me and other than a bit of burr comb and propolis needing to be scraped away so the frames could be manipulated easier/safer, things looked really good.

The bees have drawn out beautiful natural comb on all but one of the foundationless frames and there’s a good amount of honey and nectar (blackberries blooming and soon Toyon), and they are storing some pollen and bee bread on the frames. We have lots of star thistle coming up now and Eucalyptus will flower next, so I plan to add a medium 10-frame in about a week, which includes 3 frames of drawn out comb to get them started (7 are foundationless).

I’m not planning on harvesting honey from the hive this year unless they fill up both the deep and the medium, so they have plenty of food stores for the winter. In that case, I will add the Flow Super and whatever honey they put in there, I will feel comfortable harvesting for us humans.

My main goal for this year is to efficiently manage pests and successfully over-winter my hive, so next spring I see healthy bees emerge. Then hopefully I’ll properly manage/prevent spring swarms and thereby start a second or third hive!

So, that’s my current update. I am blessed that I had all of you guiding me when I was overwhelmed and needing help. Again, thank you to every one of you.

I always welcome comments and suggestions, so if you see something I can improve on, don’t hold back!

[Dawn_SD]

Very nicely done, and wonderful update, thank you! I am so happy that you have found a local beekeeper who is helpful. We are here for you too, but local knowledge is golden. Enjoy the summer!

[Rmcpb]

That is a very good plan. Too many people want to get the honey asap, its more about good beekeeping and then the honey will come.

Cheers
Rob.

[Eva]

Carol, what a wonderful update! It’s always a pleasure to lend support to folks like you who are really listening and care so obviously for their bees’ wellbeing - it’s so great to have you here on the forum!

Just an fyi for whenever you might place your Fsuper on, there’s a preliminary stage with brand new Flow frames to be aware of: the bees will first need to complete waxing up the cells before nectar can be stored in them. With some luck this season you could see that accomplished or at least a good start on it for next season. If it’s too close to a dearth they can put propolis in there instead (not good). Keep us posted if you feel you’re getting there and we can help you discern that timing with your local beek mentor’s help

[carol08]

Eva, thank you for the kind words. That’s a very good reminder about the Fsuper! I’m glad you brought that up. I forgot the bees first need to wax those cells, and I definitely don’t want propolis in the cells, yikes! Hopefully this year will end with a couple of boxes full of winter food stores for the bees, then next year I’ll work on building up to adding the Fsuper. But, if by chance there’s an over-abundance of nectar still coming in, I’ll check in and get some feedback on timing to add (or not) the Fsuper this year. Thank you!!