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patty_wy

Bees making comb all over the place and BIG bees

Patty_Wy
12 years ago

I received the two frames of bees and brood from a local beekeeper when both my packages of bees died off. He brought them about 3 weeks ago and they have been going like gangbusters ever since. I have been feeding them old crystalized honey and corn syrup to help them build comb on the 7 brand new frames even though we are in the midst of a nectar flow with both our sanfoin and alfalfa fields. They have I have a feeder with water in front of the hive as well. I have been checking their hive about once a week to make sure the queen hasn't died and she has been there, busy laying eggs and doing her thing. I have had two things come up that I don't understand. They have all these beautiful brand-spanking new frames and although they have built comb on both sides of two frames the bees are building comb on top of frames near the opening of the inner cover and in the small area extending down from the frames. The other thing is I have been seeing these gigantic bees occasionally coming into my hive and I don't know if they are robbers or not. They are about 1/3 bigger than the worker bees but I'm not sure they are drones...the area behind the head and towards the back is shiny black and the stripes on the lower part of the bodies are not as obvious as the worker bees. I don't know if they are robber bees or just gigantic lazy drones looking for some action. Any ideas?

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