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Newbie with question on hive heath

Posted by nhfire77 NH (My Page) on
Mon, May 18, 09 at 8:54

Hi,

This is my first year bee keeping. I have two hives. Both are brand new package bees. One is textbook perfect, they other is a little off.

They both were installed April 27th.

I was not aware that you have to remove burr comb that was created between the frames when the queen cage was left in for the first few days. The bees have made quite a mess with it and its full of brood, but the brood on the burr comb and the foundation adjacent to it is not to tightly filled, there are one to three cell gaps on both the burr and the foundation.

Also, I found pupa uncapped. I found this to be a bit odd.

Also, there was two supersedure cells, both up high on the brood frame in question.

Someone told me one or two supersedure cells is not the end, just remove them, but, if they come back with more and more thats not good.

I just removed them yesterday.

They have plenty of syrup to feed from, they are collecting pollen and producing nectar.

Should I replace the queen? Or should I wait longer?

The second hive is great, queen is obviously healthy. The hives are only 10 feet apart, so I am assuming, that the environment is not the problem with the other one. I am just not sure if the burr comb is the cause for the stress, which in turn caused the supersede cells.


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Newbie with question on hive heath

You have left the queen cage in for too long, 2 or 3 day's is max. and in this time you will not have brood.

>>Also, I found pupa uncapped. I found this to be a bit odd. <<

Why??...this is normal life cycle of honey bees, please read books on honey bees, better yet to take classes
and join a club.

>>Also, there was two supersedure cells, both up high on the brood frame in question. <<

This sounds odd on a newly installed queen, never happened to me but I guess it can happen.

>>I just removed them yesterday. <<

This can make a hive queen less.

>>Should I replace the queen? <<

You might have to because you removed the queen cells, wait and see, ..good luck!

Konrad


 
 

 

 


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