The Honey Factory

[karenerwin]

Here is the first picture.

 

[karenerwin]

2nd picture. I just blew on them a little to get them to move so I could see what was under them better.
Do you agree with me that this is capped brood?

 

[duluthralphie]

View attachment 3112892
Here is the first picture.

That looks really yellow to be brood cells. I took the liberty of blowing up your photo.

This looks like honey to me.


But I am not very experienced either.

 

[duluthralphie]

View attachment 3112894
2nd picture. I just blew on them a little to get them to move so I could see what was under them better.
Do you agree with me that this is capped brood?

But in this photo it looks like uncapped brood. So. I don’t know..

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

@karenerwin I agree with Ralphie, I think it's capped honey.
It's hard to tell only looking at 2 pictures but hopefully one of your swarm cells made it, I'd be getting a new queen now.
You have a lot of yellow fuzzy bees, which are ones that just hatched on the top picture.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Do you agree with me that this is capped brood?

Yes. Lots of brood, it looks great! The bees have only been in the hive for 11 days, correct? It's not unusual for packages to start supercedure cells after install. Some claim it's queen quality, others claim it's the random age of bees when the packages are being made. The bees in general are disorganized in a package, so supercedures are sometimes a result. SInce you knocked down the first set of cells you should be okay. You may have to just let them replace the queen if they keep making cells or they will end up queen less.The most important thing is to see eggs because you'll know there's a queen laying in the last 2 or 3 days. To see eggs get a cheap magnifying glass or fresnel lens. It will give you piece of mind and you can close the hive up as soon as you see the eggs.

 

[karenerwin]

@duluthralphie I agree that the first section looks like uncapped honey.
@BirdsBeesTrees I didn’t include a picture of their capped honey but it is much whiter in color than what is shown which is why I think the yellow capped is probably brood. Sometimes the capped brood is browner but I was wondering if this was just more newly capped or something .

Should I be concerned that there isn’t much pollen in the hive? I only saw a couple ( like 1 or 2) bees in the hive with pollen on their legs. But hopefully most bees were out foraging at that time.
I plan to get back in the hive on Friday or Saturday weather permitting and using a magnifying glass to look for eggs.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

@duluthralphie I agree that the first section looks like uncapped honey.
@BirdsBeesTrees I didn’t include a picture of their capped honey but it is much whiter in color than what is shown which is why I think the yellow capped is probably brood. Sometimes the capped brood is browner but I was wondering if this was just more newly capped or something .

Should I be concerned that there isn’t much pollen in the hive? I only saw a couple ( like 1 or 2) bees in the hive with pollen on their legs. But hopefully most bees were out foraging at that time.
I plan to get back in the hive on Friday or Saturday weather permitting and using a magnifying glass to look for eggs.

That's great if it's brood, it's really booming then!
It's hard for me to see the eggs now too. The last year my vision has declined. My eye dr. says my prescription is the same but I'm just having a hard time seeing fine things.

 

[jerryse]

So I have seen videos about the Demaree swarm control method . It requires finding the queen and then putting her in a brood box with a couple frames of brood with queen excluder on top of that brood box for your bottom brood box . A problem for those of us who have trouble finding the queen . Now I found a post that says put a honey super on the bottom with excluder on top . So the extra room down low keeps them from swarming . I may try this method .

 

[Apis mellifera]

Should I be concerned that there isn’t much pollen in the hive?

No, they will collect pollen as they need it or when they can find it.

I plan to get back in the hive on Friday or Saturday weather permitting and using a magnifying glass to look for eggs.

If the second box you added is full of eggs and brood you may want to add 2 honey supers. With the sun to your back hold the top of frame at your chest and the bottom of the frame away from you. Cells are at an angle. Bright led flashlights pointed in the cells help too. Switching to black plastic foundation makes a big difference.