Thread: Beekeeping

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Can you open and inspect the new hives to look for the queen Before you introduce the purchased queen? Just wondering.

Very good question!

I am not very good at finding 1 queen in 50,000 bees or so......

In one hive I scraped off the closed queen cells but when I looked at them they had dead bees in them. The first queen that hatches kills the others and that is what I think may have happened.....

I was prety rough with the hives and may have killed the virgin queen..... There are no eggs or uncapped larva in the hives so I know that no one is laying at this time.

I put the purchased queens in the hives and if they kill them. What would I do with them otherwise? I hope that the most I will be out is the $32 per queen and my time. But I am not counting my time as,,,,,,, I have Lots To learn!