Thursday, July 26, 2012

New Queen and Goodbye to Hive 2

The 2nd hive (the cutout, we call it) was determined not to have a queen. Which partially explains their awful temperament.  We gave them some eggs on 7/10 from my established hive, hoping they'd sense they were w/o a queen, and raise themselves a new one (a queen is like $35 to purchase one).  So, eggs were placed on the 10th, making the potential queen's hatch date today (7/26). 

Today's hive check started off grimly.  Their temperament was still foul, and lunged at me when I approached the inner cover. Not normal behavior AT ALL.  They calmed down once we smoked them and were 'normal' in their temperament after that.

We found no eggs, but we did spot several queen cells that had hatched!  Then, we spotted the new queen!!!!!  It looked like she hadn't mated yet, as her abdomen wasn't large and swollen w/eggs as it usually is. Also, we noted no eggs in the hive which kinda confirmed she isn't fertile (laying eggs) yet. 

The hive has no stored or food supplies at all, so will never make it through the winter. So this weekend, they are moving up to higher elevations (towards Mt. Rainier) so they can catch the wildflower nectar flow available there this late in the season.  Hopefully, they'll get some stores for the winter.


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