OP
bjosephd
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2014
- Messages
- 1,129
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- North Somerset
- Hive Type
- Langstroth
- Number of Hives
- 3
Update...
I think I found a small lone dying queen wandering around a couple of meters from the hive this afternoon... the other bees didn't seem to give a monkey's though. She's now pretty much conked out.
Queen or otherwise, the hive is proper busy today, drones flying (and dying - as seems to be a drone habit - they all seem like bumbling fools to me) and I'm amazed how chilled this hive currently is, I can get incredibly close to the hive and watch them and they really don't care at all... so maybe the dead queen was laying some lovely cuddly bees... shame. Hopefully a new queen (when/if!) will have equally chilled offspring. (maybe they will be less chilled when there's more stores and brood to defend?)
Maybe a good day for mating today? Who knows... but I still feel not worth opening up and disturbing until next week at the earliest really - currently 15 days since brood frame added with queen cells in various stages.
Didn't listen last night for piping, will try and listen tonight.
Either way, the colony has been super busy and you can hear them comb building away at night, so I imagine the house is pretty much set up by now... I just hope they leave space for a queen to get laying and don't fill the whole place up with stores before she's laying.
I think I found a small lone dying queen wandering around a couple of meters from the hive this afternoon... the other bees didn't seem to give a monkey's though. She's now pretty much conked out.
Queen or otherwise, the hive is proper busy today, drones flying (and dying - as seems to be a drone habit - they all seem like bumbling fools to me) and I'm amazed how chilled this hive currently is, I can get incredibly close to the hive and watch them and they really don't care at all... so maybe the dead queen was laying some lovely cuddly bees... shame. Hopefully a new queen (when/if!) will have equally chilled offspring. (maybe they will be less chilled when there's more stores and brood to defend?)
Maybe a good day for mating today? Who knows... but I still feel not worth opening up and disturbing until next week at the earliest really - currently 15 days since brood frame added with queen cells in various stages.
Didn't listen last night for piping, will try and listen tonight.
Either way, the colony has been super busy and you can hear them comb building away at night, so I imagine the house is pretty much set up by now... I just hope they leave space for a queen to get laying and don't fill the whole place up with stores before she's laying.
