Gribbee
New Bee
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 66
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Sheffield
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 12
Collected a small swarm (approx 2-3 frames of bees) 2 weeks ago in a nuke box.
I got it home and fed it over the following week. On the sixth morning I noticed that the bees appeared to be quite agitated and a lot of bees congregating at the entrance, this after being completely calm and gentle all week. I was out all day but on my return I was surprised to see the bees were still agitated but now as well as bees in the entrance a ball of bees were on the grass about 2 mtrs from the box. After close inspection it would seem that the bees on the grass were actually balling a now dead young queen. I am only in my fist year of beekeeping and so I assume it was a young queen because her abdomen was still quite soft and pail in colour. However the bees the next day returned to being very quiet and busy collecting pollen and nectar but now another week on and no sign of a queen and no eggs or larvae. Could it be that the bees have killed there only queen?
Steve
I got it home and fed it over the following week. On the sixth morning I noticed that the bees appeared to be quite agitated and a lot of bees congregating at the entrance, this after being completely calm and gentle all week. I was out all day but on my return I was surprised to see the bees were still agitated but now as well as bees in the entrance a ball of bees were on the grass about 2 mtrs from the box. After close inspection it would seem that the bees on the grass were actually balling a now dead young queen. I am only in my fist year of beekeeping and so I assume it was a young queen because her abdomen was still quite soft and pail in colour. However the bees the next day returned to being very quiet and busy collecting pollen and nectar but now another week on and no sign of a queen and no eggs or larvae. Could it be that the bees have killed there only queen?
Steve
