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3 new packages- what is happening

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28 Apr 2023 6:15 AM

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Reply # 13183915 on 13183031

Anonymous member (Administrator)

From this side of the keyboard it sounds like your queens were not well mated.

I have had a queen leave a box and show up in the box next door, I attribute this to a frame of old brood I gave them to clean up. Were your box conditions all good?

Often bee packages will requeen, since the queen is not related to any of the bees in a package? They will often make their own queen.

If they are nectar bound stop feeding, Without a laying queen the bees will fill every cell with nectar. If you replace the queens give them a frame of drawn comb so they have a place to lay right away.

I wonder if your package provider will supply you with new queens, I would ask. This is one of the risks of buying packages, a nuc is a functioning colony and a laying queen, since they have brood on frames are less likely to leave and have a much higher success rate.

Last modified: 28 Apr 2023 6:26 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

27 Apr 2023 12:28 PM

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Message # 13183031

Anonymous member

last friday we eagerly set up 3 new packages w marked italian queen. Upon inspection on Monday, we found things that are new to us- perhaps this community can provide insight

hive 1- upon inspection, no queen, and population appears to be much less (approx half?) of what was originally introduced- checked again yesterday- still no queen-

hive 2 -Lots of bees, appears to be more than original pkg (perhaps some from hive 1 moved in?). Queen out an about. fast forward to yesterday (so 5 days later), they have built some comb, but are filling most of open space on frames with sugar water and pollen- ie very little space for eggs, and Queen appears to be wandering lonely, (not surrounded by attendants), and very little sign of eggs, as all space is filled w sugar water.

Hive 3- upon inspection- noticed marking is removed from queen (is that "normal"), also similar to hive 2, they are filling in with sugar water vs leaving space for eggs. on positive we did see some new eggs (much more than hive 2)

Suggestions?

should we combine queenless #1 hive w #3 hive?, attempt to re-queen#1

What can we do w #2 , where there are tons of bees but no place for eggs as they continue to fill w sugar water?

any other thoughts? Thanks!