Help no brood or eggs with my new package!

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Bee and Flower
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:47 pm

Help no brood or eggs with my new package!

Post by Bee and Flower » Fri May 03, 2013 6:13 pm

I received and installed a package of bees last Saturday. The queen was alive in the cage. I checked on Tuesday the cage was empty. Today on Friday I opened up the hive no sign of brood or eggs. It would have been really messy, distructive,and disturbing to hunt for the queen. I did not see her but I was more focused on quickly finding sign of brood and eggs. I am expecting another package of bees tomorrow with a queen. My neighbor has a hive of aggressive mutt bees that probably have mites. I am sure he has queen cells from all the small swarms he is kicking off today. But I don't want his problems. I could try and order a queen ASAP but I am not sure where to start. Does anyone local have queen or maybe a frame of mite free brood and eggs. I am hoping to go chemical free with my hives and have gone to more expense and effort to set up my organic hives. I don't want mites if I can avoid it. Is it possible that I still have a queen and she has not started laying yet. Should I wait longer and check again in a week before panicing. The bees have done a great job of laying down straight comb in most of the frames without any foundation. There is some pollen and I am feeding them syrup and pollen patties. Maybe the queen is just delayed due to the cold weather and snow. I saw no signs of a laying worker. Thanks Lesley

Backyard Bees
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:52 am

Re: Help no brood or eggs with my new package!

Post by Backyard Bees » Wed May 08, 2013 8:17 am

Congratulations on your new bees! Don't panic ... yet. It sounds like your initial check went pretty quickly. Recommending that you check again & let us know what you find. Doing a tidy/quick but useful inspection of a live colony is a basic beekeeping skill that takes time to learn and is best to practice now when your bees are at their easiest. Things are only going to get messier as the summer progresses and there are more bees and hive material (honey, propolis, burr comb) in the mix.

Most if not all colonies in Boulder County have mites to one degree or another. They are virtually unavoidable and there are chem-free ways to manage them when you do find them but try not to worry too much about that just yet. Now is for finding your queen.
Backyard Bees
P.O. Box 7426
Boulder, Colorado 80306
http://www.BackyardBees.com

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