You will be surprised...a gallon in six days is not that much.  I've had bees take a gallon in half that time.  

The only thing about the frame feeders I've seen is that they generally drown bees.  I have not seen the latest adaptations to know whether they have ways to avoid this.  (I mean I have not seen them in use.)

Drowning bees really bothers me, but some beekeepers don't have issues with it.

Wow.

And we're at page 100. I didn't even notice that.

Great photo for page 100.  

I think you need a new queen.  And the bees seem to agree.

Is the queen cell capped?

Crap.

We need CE and Dux.

I'm not sure I would let that queen hatch.

It will have the old queen's genetics, and she's not what you want.

If she takes a notion to do something stupid like swarm, the colony will follow.

The old queen is not doing a good job.

I'm wondering if you should tear out the queen cell, order a new queen, and install her.

I would likely do that, but it would be good to get other opinions.

Do you know how long the queen cell has been capped?

When were you last in the hive?

There must have been at least some worker brood.


Either way, you have some choices.

You can ask your bee mentor to sell you a frame of brood from a good queen, and install that, hoping your colony will make a good new queen... (this will require that you destroy your current queen cell and probably smoosh your current queen, but that's assuming you can find her.)

You can let it ride out and see if the new queen takes over and does well (doubtful)

I think, either way, you need somebody over there to help you find the old queen once you decide what to do.

You can't introduce a new queen if the old one is there.

If the new queen in the cell hatches, she might or might not win over the old queen.  It depends.

And if she does, will she be any better?  Doubtful.  Same genetics.  (CE will know a lot more about this than I do, as he's deep into bee genetics right now.  I cannot even APPROACH what he knows at this point.)

Either way, you have to take action with that hive, and it appears to me that you need a new queen.

Do you have a place to get one?  (order, ask mentors, queen breeder in your area, etc?)

ETA:  I see that you have somethign coming in...maybe a possibility.

You have to decide if that is where you want to get your queen.

BUT...you ALSO have to get in touch with the master beekeepers in your area.  Get one of them to come out to your house and find the queen in that colony.  You have to deal with THAT queen before you try to introduce a new one.

CE, I think he's doing Top Bar.

What caught my attention is that he was seeing only drone brood, and now he's seeing some worker brood.  Evidence, maybe, that there has been supercedure already.  BUT...clearly they're making another one.  The thing is, he's been in there often enough I think he would have seen supercedure cells if they'd made them before now.

yes, maybe.

Even so, that would not help him find his existing queen or catch and remove her if that's what he needs to do.

I agree completely on getting local help.

It's time for that.

Let us know how it goes.

That's good news, and two reports that the newer frame feeders were not as prone to drowning as the old ones.

I still say any amendments folks can make to them, for bees to climb out, are always good. I think some colonies are more prone to drowning than others, and I have no idea why that would be.

It may have to do with how much the bees are needing the syrup and tending to pile on it.

The companies have obviously listened to the beekeepers and worked on those feeders.  When they first came out (or at least, when I first started beekeeping) they were nothing but an empty, plastic, slick-sided pit full of sugar water, and once a bee got wet, there was no way out.

@SmokeEater2  do you have flooding where you are?  I've seen some awful photos from your state.

OMGOSH that is awful about your dog!

RIP to your buddy.  

I see at least three capped queen cells on that comb.  I would not divide that frame I don't think, but maybe CE will weigh in. What you need is to get help out there to look in your hive.  

The bees will make the decision about the queen and who will live or die unless you catch the old one and destroy her.

Wish we were closer.

@FrankSymptoms,

These, with the red arrows, look like queen cells.




On this frame, the red arrow points to a queen cell that looks capped.

The blue arrows point to queen cups.

Is that not correct?



Edited cuz I switched my colors.

Frank sent me an IM, wondering why I counted as I did.

He had observed only one capped cell and was confused.

Either the photo is deceiving, or he has more than he realizes is happening.

I encouraged him to post his questions here, as the education is great for all newer beekeepers.  Then I made those images with the arrows.

Me too, but I suspect there are more on the frame.  I suspect there may be a second capped cell (or nearly capped) above the first one in that first frame.  Just the shape of the comb and the attention that bumpout is getting make me think that.

BUT...then I thought...maybe this is the same frame, taken from a lower angle, and those cells that looked capped were actually not.  

I see a queen cup on the first pic too, I think, about half way down...just above my lowest red arrow.

Yep.  And yes, it's difficult to say.

Page 100 is full of awesome queen cells and possibilities of queen cells!

@FrankSymptoms, this is awesome!

Okay, yes, I know your hive is more important than this thread, but just sayin, you've brought an awesome bit of stuff to us.

Everything in my psyche tells me that's a queen cell.  See how it's set apart...just a little...from the rest of the comb?  It's got that form.

I don't know that, but my gut immediately said, "queen cell."

CE, at some point, if you wanted to do a write up on how a hive builds a queen, and what to look for (maybe you could use some photos of your queen rearing nucs) that would be such a great resource for new beekeepers.

There are some things on the web, but surprisingly little that tells the whole story from start to finish, with pics.

If you needed to watermark some pics (are you set up to do that?) I'd be happy to do it for you.

honestly you could do a MUCH simpler write-up.


"How bees make a new queen."  And use photos from your operation.

THAT is what I think should be watermarked, because I think if you posted it somewhere it will get a LOT of hits on the web. I guess this site gets hits same as any other, like blogs and university sites and such. The bots troll everything for data.

Anyway, as a new beekeeper, I did not understand certain aspects, and there was no good resource with photos and a simple explanation of how things happened.

The bee life cycles starts here.

A worker bee gets capped at X days, hatches at X days.

The same egg that makes a worker also makes a queen.

There are two ways that a queen gets made.

1-The bees make a queen cup (a special cell, built larger than other honeycomb cells)  and get the queen to lay an egg in that cup.

2-If something has happened to the queen in a bee colony, and they unexpectedly need a new one, the bees can take a previously laid egg (from X age to X age) and turn that egg into a queen.


IN that case....

Once the bees in the colony decide that egg should be a queen, they treat it differently..  

1-they begin feeding it royal jelly (which is XXXX) as early as X day and as late as X day.

2- blah blah blah

blah blah blah.


Seriously...there is nothing this clear and concise on the web that I have found.

People either make it too basic and dumbed down,

or they leave stuff out that leaves big holes in the information, assuming people already know certain things.

no, no, NO (to them)

Somebody needs to tell the whole story. With pics....that would be an ebook that you could publish and SELL.

Just sayin.

ETA: There is a huge gap in information for people who do not want to buy "The hive and the honeybee"

You have the raw data to fill that gap.

You could make an e-book and publish it and it would be of great value.



I edit books for a living.  I don't mean I find a capital letter that is missing. (yes, I do that, too)   I mean I find what's wrong with the information in the book.  Where it's not clear.  Where it doesn't make sense.

If you decide to to do an ebook and need help with editing or knowing what's missing in the information (it's obvious to you but not to your reader) I am offering right here, to help you with that.

Put it together.  Sell it for $5.  You will make money.

That will change.

The bees don't have much to defend at this time of year.

The more they have to defend, the more aggressive they will get.

You may STILL have gentle bees, comparatively.

But you may find out, quite suddenly, on your next mowing, that the bees are not in such a good mood.



ETA:  Quarter size tiger stripe mosquitoes...

This is why I don't want to ever live further south.

Just sayin.