Subject: New hive and some questions

From: "Richard Spear" <[email-masked]>
Date: 23 Jun 1996 11:58:02 -0700

Hi -

It's a beautiful day here in southern California and I've just finished
checking my only hive that was started from a mail-order package three
weeks ago. Everything looked good - there were larva and new bees exiting
cells. I have a few questions tho' -

There was alot of burr comb that I cleaned up. Most had honey but there
was also a few cells with larvae in them. I never saw the queen (although
I looked pretty hard) and after putting everything back together I began
to wonder whether I could accidentally harm her and how likely that might
be. I saw two very large clumps of bees and thought that perhaps that was
where she might be. Has anyone damaged a queen while servicing a hive? How
do you know if you have? How long should I wait before re-entering the
hive?

Also, I had put two Apistan strips in the hive three weeks ago, but these
strips were from an opened package that had sat around for one year. I
replaced those two strips today with new strips (expensive! $22 here in
CA). Was that the right thing to do?
------------------
Richard
[email-masked]
www.primenet.com/~rspear

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From: [email-masked] (Bill Henderson)
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 14:56:58 +0100

Richard

> It's a beautiful day here in southern California

It's a lovely day here as well, perhaps just a wee bit too hot for 
me, with temperatures around 20 C (about 70 F). I'm melting. It must 
be great to have air conditioning. Here we open the window and the 
heat pours in.

Give it 9 days before you go back inside your hive. If there are eggs 
through to capped brood then you're okay. Don't expect to see the 
queen very often, she's only one bee in thousands.

> Most (cells) had honey but there
> was also a few cells with larvae in them.

You want lots of cells with larvae. You could put on an empty super 
to give the queen room to lay.

There is always a danger of squashing a queen, just be careful and 
watch where you put things. A wee puff of smoke will usually shift 
bees away before you put two surfaces together. The greatest danger 
of losing a queen is probably when you lay a comb outsid the hive for 
some reason. To avoid this give the frame a dunt to shake most of the 
bees off into the brood chamber and always lay the it vertically at 
the door of the hive. This way you will not crush her and if she does 
fall off she can easily get back in through the door.

As for as medicine is concerned I don't know - probably country specific.

Hope this helps.

-- 
Bill       Br of Cally, Perthshire, Scotland
e-mail     [email-masked]
packet     GM0VIT@GB7YEW.#79.GBR.EU

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From: [email-masked] (PWestall)
Date: 2 Jul 1996 14:53:56 -0400

Richard, if you see eggs you have a queen. If eggs are too small for you,
larvae present will also be positive. Queens are not easily seen as a
rule. You will come across her when you least expect it. If you see well
loaded pollen baskets on the bees entering you can be fairly sure all is
well. 

However your concern is real I would say most queens are killed because of
the beekeeper.

Christopher Westall, UK (England)