17 March, 2009 - 4:30 pm

Made it out to the Bee yard at around 4:30pm. Fired up the smoker just in case it was needed.

As I approached the Charlie hive things just did not seem right. There was no bee activity at all at the entrance. There was no buzzing coming from the hive. I opened it up and found maybe a couple hundred bees inside. I moved the frames so I could look at the queen cage. All of the attendant bees were alive but the queen was not. She was balled up at the bottom of the queen cage. I could not see any signs of stings or outright damage. So it seems that the long trip here, stressed the queen. Since I found so few bees its doubtful the remaining larva and capped brood will survive.

I did not want to take any more frames from the Alpha hive. That hives queen finally started laying.

The Alpha hive seems to be doing well even after I took several frames to make the now failed Charlie hive. I checked for more signs of queen activity. The queen has been busy laying. I was able to see eggs and larva of various ages. I put a honey super on today to give the bees something to do. This weekend I will swap the top and bottom brood supers to get the queen moving through the frames. There is still plenty of sugar water in the hive top feeder.

The Beta hive seems to be doing well. I was able to spot the queen. I saw larva of various ages. Since 6 out of 10 frames were used, I put a honey super on in hopes that the bees will start working on the frames. Next week I should be receiving the hive body with frames and foundation to put on this hive. The feeder jar was 2/3 full.

Its most unfortunate that the the queen of Charlie hive perished. I believe I did what I could. Next time around I will just try to raise a queen from a split instead of ordering a queen.