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Picked up our first package of bees on May 21 and installed them in our top bar hive without incident. Opened the hive 3 days later to look for the queen but were unsuccessful spotting her. We opened the hive again today, May 29 to see what we could see. I've attached a photo of what we are hoping are brood cells, indicating the presence of a queen. Would appreciate it very much if a beekeeper out there could tell us if there are brood cells in the photo with newly laid eggs or if it is something different. We are anxiously looking for evidence that our queen is present and laying. Thank you for your assistance.
Susan and Mark on Sunset Lake - Benson, Vermont
Susan and Mark on Sunset Lake - Benson, Vermont
I think I see a couple eggs in open cells just left of center about 5 cells down?(5 cells to an inch)
Also,I see what might be a larger thorax- and eyes -could be the queen. With her abdominal in a cell?? Or a drone, I can't tell.
If you installed on 5/21, the Queen may have been released by 5/24. Some queens may lay right away but she would need cells to get started.Some queens may not lay for 2 weeks, I have read that if she hasnt, get a new queen.
If she has layed eggs, you should see capped brood by about the 29th. The earliest.
I would check again next Sunday or monday- mid day while workers are out of the hive.
This will give them undesired time to build comb an cap any cells that are ready.you should also be able to see lava by then.
(On my first hive I couldn't see eggs until my daughter took pics an we enlarged on c omputer. Can almost always find lava an capped brood. ( good luck)
Also,I see what might be a larger thorax- and eyes -could be the queen. With her abdominal in a cell?? Or a drone, I can't tell.
If you installed on 5/21, the Queen may have been released by 5/24. Some queens may lay right away but she would need cells to get started.Some queens may not lay for 2 weeks, I have read that if she hasnt, get a new queen.
If she has layed eggs, you should see capped brood by about the 29th. The earliest.
I would check again next Sunday or monday- mid day while workers are out of the hive.
This will give them undesired time to build comb an cap any cells that are ready.you should also be able to see lava by then.
(On my first hive I couldn't see eggs until my daughter took pics an we enlarged on c omputer. Can almost always find lava an capped brood. ( good luck)
I really can't tell if I see eggs and or larvae. I'd need to be there looking with my glasses on. Natural comb is hard for me to see the eggs in. Why I use black foundation; very easy to spot even eggs in the bottom of a cell.
The deal is they would be very upset if there was no queen. You'd know it working with them. It takes time of being queenless before the workers start to lay eggs. Once you can spot eggs if you start seeing two eggs to a cell it's gone queenless and workers are laying. They are hard to accept a new queen at that point and many just take the frames 100 ft away and shake the bees off. But I doubt your queenless. They really do get upset and won't settle down for weeks until a few workers start to lay eggs. It's the long period of no brood that triggers the workers to start laying. They only lay drones.
Your two weeks into the package so get some magnified glasses and really look at the bottom of the cells. Eggs are straight little lines and they soon hatch, larvae are curled in half circle and they grow bigger and bigger until the cell is capped.
The deal is they would be very upset if there was no queen. You'd know it working with them. It takes time of being queenless before the workers start to lay eggs. Once you can spot eggs if you start seeing two eggs to a cell it's gone queenless and workers are laying. They are hard to accept a new queen at that point and many just take the frames 100 ft away and shake the bees off. But I doubt your queenless. They really do get upset and won't settle down for weeks until a few workers start to lay eggs. It's the long period of no brood that triggers the workers to start laying. They only lay drones.
Your two weeks into the package so get some magnified glasses and really look at the bottom of the cells. Eggs are straight little lines and they soon hatch, larvae are curled in half circle and they grow bigger and bigger until the cell is capped.
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