Thank you, that makes sense…the ugly side of beekeeping I guess.
Have a look through the beekeeping books part of the forum.
Reading through a few of the books will save you a lot of stress and money.
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Thank you, I’ll check it out. I am so impressed with this forum, the info available and the helpful folks on it. Everything a new beekeeper needs to know is available on these pages.
I took a quick peek inside the hive this morning. It appears to have brood. I have a couple (blurry) pics. What do you think?
did you find the Queen??
Hi Becky, can’t see any capped brood, was there any eggs or larvae in the cells? I do see some capped honey at the very top and what looks to be pollen in some cells.
Is that an uncapped queen cell in the middle/top of the second picture?
Not sure Valli. I sent these pics to the folks that I purchased the nucs from for their opinion.
I thought it was, but am not sure. I was hoping someone would confirm that I did, but I realize its hard to see in these pics.
Hi Rodderick, I guess I need to go in for a closer look. My smoker pooped out so I had to make it quick and was just looking for those cells. I saw that they were uncapped, so I was hopeful that a queen already emerged. Oh well, back to the hive.
Bloody smokers, it takes a bit of practice to get it right… 
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Looks like an open queen cell.
You might have a virgin queen you might have no queen.
Where do you see brood ? I cant see any on the pics but they are blurred.
Whatever has happened happened more than 3 weeks ago.
The area in the centre of the frames is it clean and shiny " polished " or are they filling the frames with food ?
If they have polished the cells then you have a chance that there is a queen there. If they are filling it full of food then that is a sign there is no queen.
First pic looks like 3 or 4 other queen cells.
Looking like your colony has swarmed itself into a bad situation.
You need to learn fast before your other colonies start to do the same.
Haynes bee manual is a good book for beginners has lots of nice pictures that make it easy to apply to what you see.
How long have you had bees ?
Are there any beginners courses in your area ?
From one of Becky’s previous posts, a new queen is on the way (in the post), she just needs to tear down any queen cells and make sure there are no queens in the colony when the new one arrives.
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No brood or eggs so they cannot make a new queen cell.
If there is a virgin queen in there then it will kill the bought queen as soon as she puts it in.
Various ways to see.
Easiest way is to put a frame of eggs into the hive from another colony. If they make queen cells then there is no virgin queen in the hive. If however they ignore the frame and raise brood normally then good chance a queen is there. Added bonus is the frame of eggs and brood will stop laying workers developing as they may kill the new queen also when she is introduced.
Another concern is how many bees are in the colony now ?
Too few and putting a new queen in there will be a waste of money.
If other colonies are doing well some bees can be shaken into the hive to bolster the numbers. This will mean locating the queen in the donor colony first as you dont want to shake her in there.
Moving the weak colony into the position of a strong one would also add bees to the weak colony. Care when doing this as you dont want to make 2 weak colonies for the sake of a lost cause.
More regular inspections and some swarm control method is the only way forward as other colonies will also start swarming too and if left to get on with it could also end up in a q- mess.
A lot more to beekeeping than just putting them in a hive im afraid.
Thank you Bee Happy for all the good advice. I am a first year beekeeper, but am not totally inexperienced as I’ve learned on the heels of some experienced folks over the years. This just happens to be the first year I’ve had my own hives. I have plenty of bees in the weak hive and I believe what you see in the pics are queen cells. I sent the pics to the beekeepers I bought my nucs from, so i will see what they say. I don’t think they swarmed.
If your new queen is ordered then it’s time for a test frame .
Remove a frame of eggs from another hive and mark the top bar with drawing pin or marker pen after shaking all the bees off it. Place it in the middle of the weak hive and leave it for a week.
Go back and lift the frame out and see if there are any queen cells on it.
If yes then remove them all and it is safe to introduce your new queen in whatever method you use.
If no queen cells then life just got complicated.
You will need to search for the queen and check for laying workers.
Dont leave the test frame for more than 10 days without checking and dont leave any queen cells on it.
Alternatively you can add the test frame look 5 days later and remove all sealed queen cells. Leave one or two open queen cells that have larvae in and a good pool of food and let them raise their own queen.
Good mating will depend on the amount of drones in your area.
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Hi Rodderick, A fellow beekeeper offered to give me two frames full of brood and bees to replenish my weak hive. He lives 45 min. away. Do you think that there will be any issue or stress to the bees due to the fluctuation in temperature from being inside the hive verses the slightly cooler temperature during the drive over to my house? Its summertime here in NY so its warm, but it crossed my mind to ask. Any thoughts???
That’s brilliant, what a nice guy. They should be fine for the journey, I would stick them in the middle of your brood box, is this what your beekeeper friend is also suggesting?
Yes that’s his suggestion. Thank you for giving me peace of mind!
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