Y'all don't have wax moth?

Nope.

Nope.

I'm good.

I'll keep my bugs and you can keep your weather.

We have both, in a way, down here.

In the transition zone we have the bugs, and we have the occasional winter ruled by Snow Mizer.  

Every summer it hits 100 degrees and stays there for a few days, at least twice.

Every winter it hits below zero and stays there--hopefully only for a couple of days, but sometimes for a week or more.  Sometimes a week or three.

The bees get a great honey flow (usually, unless we have drought) but they have to be able to take heat and cold  

A 100 degree Fahrenheit difference, plus some, per year....That's a lot to expect out of a bug, I think.

Nevertheless, I would still take that and a locust year not to deal with feet of snow in a normal season.

Brrrrr.

ETA:  I'm not sure what to make of the recent generation that goes apeshit when there is a bit of weather.

"OMg it's the snowpocalypse!!!"  

This comes when there is a "normal"  snowfall that should happen twice a year or so in our area.

They are young and haven't seen it, because we've been in a warm cycle.

Now we're moving back to a colder cycle.

I really don't know how civilization has survived to this point, or how it will survive from this point forward.

But that's anothr thread.

Bottom line...I think if we left them alone, teh bees would be fine with it.

We start messing with them and...they struggle.

But they should have built some queen cells at some point, before that got started.   maybe they tried and failed.  Or she died in middle of winter when there was no brood to use for a new queen.

But if she's gone, they ought to at least have made an attempt.

Frank Symptoms,

If you find eggs and they are misplaced...like up on the sides of the cell, or not in the center, etc, that's another sign of a laying worker hive.  A good queen generally places the egg pretty much smack in the middle of the bottom of the cell.  Laying workers often do not.

ETA  Also, sometimes you have to pull the frame out, and tilt it so the sun shines down into the bottoms of the cells.  You'll be able to see eggs if they are there.  Wear your reading glasses if you use them.   Learning to see eggs is one of the skills you need as a beekeeper, and it's not the easiest thing to do.

have you ever successfully dealt with a laying worker hive?

I've heard a number of remedies, including shaking off the house bees in a pile far away from the hive, or shaking the house bees into a strong, queen-right hive.  Dunno if any of them will work or not.  The one hive I had with laying workers, I eventually lost.

No.  

I have only heard of methods that remove the workers from the hive.

It is always the house bees who are the layers, from what I understand.

So if you shake the house bees out a ways from the hive (they are young bees who are not normally OUT of the hive, so this will disorient them) then introduce the queen in a cage, this gives the hive a chance to accept her.  (ETA:  I think you may have to close up the hive for this to work, so those house bees don't get right back in.  I may be remembering wrong though. Been a while.)  Or if you shake the house bees into an existing, strong hive (this is the one I think should work best, just based on logic) those bees will become part of the new hive and the existing house bees will slap some sense into them, or they won't survive.  

Cruel I guess, but I don't know any other methods to save those bees.  They are doomed if some method like that does not work.

Allowing them to doom the entire hive is unacceptable though.

ONE OTHER method I heard of was to combine them with a really strong hive.  The strong hive will deal with the workers causing the problem.

That is amazing!  Great news!

I've got a question about your hive color.

I'm guessing it's much ligter gray than it looks in the photo?

I was wondering about your heat with a dark gray hive.

But I'm thinking it's actually light gray.  Is that right?  Or is it actually white????

Yes,

The queen lays where the workers tell her to lay.

If the cell is a large one, she will lay a drone.

This is the basis for the "small cell foundation" movement which many, many beekeepers (I am one) embraced over the last twenty years.

The size of the cell affects many things.

One of them is varroa.

The Varroa mite is drawn to the bigger bees.  Many beekeepers put a sheet of "drone foundation" (this is wax imprinted with larger cells) just for this reason.  The bees draw out larger cells, which means it will all be drone brood, which will attract the varroa mites to lay in that larger brood.   The beekeeper later removes this frame of drone brood and destroys it, thus destroying a significantly larger percentage of mites from the hive.

NOW...I am not saying this is a solid practice.

I'm just saying it's done, and there is some science behind it.

There is a LOT to learn with regard to the size of cells.

I am a proponent of small-cell foundation. This produces smaller bees, which are, theoretically, less susceptible to varroa infestation.

This might be why I had low populations of varroa in my hives.

But it did not keep me from losing my hives.

So one factor is almost never the answer to things.

You should spend some time in classes, and some time reading about teh sizes of cells on foundation.  It is a good bit of reading.

Ah!  That makes sense.  In the deep south, I was thinking dark colored hives might not be the best option.

I think that might be a good sequential process to follow..

First try adding eggs, to see if they will make a queen.

Second, remove house bees and introduce new queen slowly.

That would make sense...to try the least damaging thing first.

OK, Bee peeps, I need some advice, and I didn't even get started yet

My package is coming in the morning of Friday 4/14, and there is no alternative pickup time for me anywhere nearby.

Problem is, that I have to work the rest of the day, and go out of town that night straight from work, and I cannot possibly get back to the hive before Tuesday morning.

So, I think I have only two choices:

Install the package Friday morning, leaving it in the hive until Tuesday morning unattended.

or

Leave the package as is, uninstalled, and take care of business first thing Tuesday.

Which is better for the bees?

Thanks everyone

that was my take on it because I see several others that look about the same.  Could be wrong though...hard to tell from that pic.

But if you see normal brood developing, and if you see capped brood that is not drone brood, you can consider that a sign that you have an active queen.  Or at least you had one a few days ago.

Was the hive mean?

Yes.  I would do exactly this.

you need to reduce your entrance down VERY small.  As small as possible. One bee size small.

Put the entrance on the opposite side of the hive from that feeder.  (do you understand this? If the feeder is on the right, leave the entrance hole on the left.  make sure that feeder is snugged up nice and tight to the hive. I use a little wedge of wood to go under mine to support them and keep them really tight.  

I would rather install them and give them all the help I could than leave them in the package that long.  The only reason I would do that is if it was simply too cold to install.

the question is...release the queen?

Or not?

My choice would probably be to leave the queen caged with the cork out of the candy end so they can release her themselves.  Do you know how to do that?

Fish, I didn't pay attention that you were in New York.

CE is right.  You're probably still too cold.

Where I am, the Boardman would be fine at this point.  We might get a frost, but it's warm during the day.

I bet that's not so where you are, though I don't know your day/night temps, and CE is probably much more in touch with that.

RE:  #2--I would say that feeding a little is better than not feeding at all, and not sure you are able to set up for any other scenario than the boardman because maybe you don't have any extra equipment.  BUT...that's not accounting for how cold it's going to be where you are.

CE, do you feel like they won't break the ball to feed from the Boardman?  Or do you think the jar will be too cold for it to flow?  Or what?

Fish, if you have so much as an extra shallow (the thing you might have gotten as a honey super)  or the extra deep, (if you bought a two-deep hive) you could feed inside with baggies.  

I should say (ETA) that the deep will create a lot of space at the top of the hive.  CE or guys from the north, is that too much space, taking up too much heat from the small ball the package can make?

Anyway...baggie feeding.... That takes a little finesse.  Ask if you don't know how or understand.  It's a matter of putting the super on the hive with no frames in the super box, getting a gallon baggie and filling it with syrup, and cutting (very small) slits in the top of the baggie, and setting the baggie (lying flat, with the slits up toward the hive top) on top of the bars of your main hive box.

ETA:  I found this video.  Pay attention only to how this guy is placing the baggie.Baggie feeding  I cut my slits in the bag MUCH smaller.  Like half an inch to 3/4, because I've found that I drown bees with bigger slits, but some of the other folks may have something to add about this.  Baggie feeding is not my favorite way.  I do it only in emergencies, so I have limited experience with it.  

I consider your situation a semi-emergency, so you know, because you need to help your bees through this transition and make sure they are okay while you're gone, and it sounds like you may not have a lot of stuff blooming for them to start working and bringing in food.  

Ask anything you need to know.  You can make up syrup quickly, and it will be warmer inside that box than outside, if that's the issue where you are.

Ohhhh!  That's a GREAT idea!  And it will take up more space in the deep than the baggies!

Wow, you guys are awesome, and yet another example of why I love arf so much.

I have two hive bodies, and two supers. Paint cans won't be a problem to obtain.

So if I understand correctly, I'm going to put the package into the lower hive body, with 5 frames.
Queen in her cage, cork out, positioned in the frames area.
Paint cans filled 1:1, holes in the lid, upside down on top of the frames, and another hive body on top, then the inner and outer covers.
Entrance closed down to single bee size hole.
Fingers crossed, and check on them as soon as I get home, about 96 hours later.

Then, remove the empty package, add the leftover frames to the lower hive, refill and replace syrup as needed, and let bees do what bees do.

At some point, the upper hive body gets filled with frames, and then I have two supers to add on also.  I assume that waits for the weather to be consistently warm enough, as well as the bees taking nectar and pollen out in the wild.  

I have fresh pollen in the fridge, as well as pollen substitute, any need to make it available now?

Thanks again for the help!

I've inserted my red font into the quote.  Realized that with the new format, that might not have been the best idea.



By the way, you ever work around horses?  If so, you know how to move slowly and steadily. That's the best way with bees too.  You can work fast and smooth, or you can work fast and jerky.  The idea is to get the job done quickly, but without jerky movements and banging into the woodenware and such.    It's okay.  You're new. You're going to be awkward.  But if you understand that easy, steady, forward motion wins the race, it will go easier for you and the bees.  

The video that came with the hive and supplies showed the technique that I described. Pop the food can off the package, and put the whole thing into the hive body with enough frames to fill the rest of the space.  Queen suspended in her cage.  They put the little nail through the candy immediately to make a tiny gap.  Then the package came out after a day, and propped near the entrance for any stragglers, and the rest of the frames replaced.

The bee delivery guy sent an email that he was going to do a demonstration at the pickup location, but it seems really straightforward.

Weather forecast for the next couple of weeks is daytime temps in the high 50's, low 60's, with overnight temps in the mid 40's.

Most of the early spring bulbs are pushing through already, and the daffodils are already flowered. My wife came home yesterday with tons of flats she is going to get into the ground this weekend, so that will probably help a bit.

Sounds a lot like surgery

She made it look so easy.  Thanks for the link.