I split my main 2nd year beehive four days ago. I took out the queen and put her in a new hive along with several frames of brood, bees, and honey. I left the main hive where it was to let them raise their own new queen from eggs.
Today, four days later, I checked in to see how both halves were doing...
In the new hive with the old queen, I located her, looking healthy and regal on a frame of capped worker brood. In the second photo, note how the other bees surround her attentively, like Ladies in Waiting!
There was plenty of healthy looking capped brood on the frames in the old queen's new hive...
Here is a short video I took of the queen while i had my camera in hand. Once in a while I point to the queen with my gloved finger so as not to lose sight of her amongst all the other bees:
Next... I closed up that hive and then looked for newly made queen cells in the now queenless original hive. See the one large queen cell at the top of the hive frame here:
Here you can see the queen cell. You can just see the butt end of a worker bee inside it, attending to the young queen larvae. Nearby you can see a few cells with regular worker larvae in them- the white larvae curled up in the bottoms of the brood cells.
If you look carefully inside the queen cell, you can see a large soft white larvae curled up in a "C" shape inside the queen cell, bathed in royal jelly. In a few more days the cell will be closed up and the new queen will finish her pupae stage for another few days and then emerge as a new virgin queen, ready to take her mating flight.
Today, four days later, I checked in to see how both halves were doing...
In the new hive with the old queen, I located her, looking healthy and regal on a frame of capped worker brood. In the second photo, note how the other bees surround her attentively, like Ladies in Waiting!
There was plenty of healthy looking capped brood on the frames in the old queen's new hive...
Here is a short video I took of the queen while i had my camera in hand. Once in a while I point to the queen with my gloved finger so as not to lose sight of her amongst all the other bees:
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Next... I closed up that hive and then looked for newly made queen cells in the now queenless original hive. See the one large queen cell at the top of the hive frame here:
Here you can see the queen cell. You can just see the butt end of a worker bee inside it, attending to the young queen larvae. Nearby you can see a few cells with regular worker larvae in them- the white larvae curled up in the bottoms of the brood cells.
If you look carefully inside the queen cell, you can see a large soft white larvae curled up in a "C" shape inside the queen cell, bathed in royal jelly. In a few more days the cell will be closed up and the new queen will finish her pupae stage for another few days and then emerge as a new virgin queen, ready to take her mating flight.
Very nice post. Great video. The queen is dragging the right rear leg a little.
ReplyDeleteHi dave, thanks. :)
ReplyDeleteYes I too noticed she seemed to drag her hind legs a little.
I was planning to replace her in early July, and she's laying nicely right now, so maybe she will last for 7 more weeks. I may have to replace her sooner if she starts failing.
great post! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete