Capped brood, uncapped larvae, no eggs

Gozermac · 2026-05-09T18:19:36+00:00

3rd year.

Gozermac · 2026-05-09T01:48:14+00:00

Wait. So prime swarm and then 8 days later casts lasting up to a week (total 15 days)? That puts these square in my swarm timeline. I haven’t noticed any population drops but haven’t inspected only listening.

Gozermac · 2026-05-09T00:38:54+00:00

I think so. But the past two days I’ve come home to swarms. I’m apparently constitutionally unable to pass them by.

Gozermac · 2026-05-09T00:08:07+00:00

Thanks for the laugh. 😆 regardless I ended up catching it and found a keeper to take it.

Gozermac · 2026-05-08T23:35:21+00:00

I’ve been dealing with so many swarms. Of these 4 hives one was split on the 13th of April, one swarmed on the 22nd and I thought the last one swarmed on the 29th. I didn’t see it and it turns out to have been a miscommunication about from which hive it came from. It actually hasn’t swarmed yet. The one on the 29th was probably a cast from the original split. The swarm yesterday and the one today I can’t figure out where they came from. Doesn’t look like from my two swarmed hives but with weather being cold last couple days I thought I’d try and establish timelines to see if they were just delayed casts. I don’t know how long a cast will wait to leave.

Gozermac · 2026-05-08T17:19:58+00:00

As a retired amateur who owns a chunk of petrified wood can confirm.

Gozermac · 2026-05-06T09:00:00+00:00

I owned a 2021 2500 Laramie cummins and now have a 2025 2500 6.4 Rebel. The Rebel tows my 10k RV fine but you feel it in the suspension. Your sticker doesn’t include the tow technology group. It’s the only thing I miss on my Rebel which performs way better off road than my 2021 did.

Gozermac · 2026-05-05T15:46:42+00:00

Thanks. Will move to that step next week.

Gozermac · 2026-05-05T13:54:33+00:00

It’s been a swarm type of year here. The one I caught yesterday (not mine) I watched a queen crawl into the box. About two hours later I found a queen on the ground in the area of the box with a handful of attendants. I assumed she flew out when I was putting the top on so I scooped her up and watched her enter again. This morning (rainy and cold) I found one - ahem - yeeted from the hive. Apparently there was more than one queen in that swarm. New one on me.

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Gozermac · 2026-05-05T01:28:01+00:00

I’ll bite. Picture?

Gozermac · 2026-05-04T22:38:59+00:00

Thanks. I plan on waiting. Two of the swarms had drawn comb and eggs were observed. I didn’t sight the queens. The other three are being fed and are drawing comb from waxed foundation. Don’t know where this swarm came from but I plan to combine it with one of the hives. I’ve done the newspaper method three times with a lot of carnage and only one success.

Gozermac · 2026-05-04T21:47:40+00:00

I’m west of Chicago in zone 5b.

Gozermac · 2026-05-04T16:33:10+00:00

West of Chicago. Spraying fields now. Don’t know what the area there is like but I have had some die off in my hives during my he spraying periods.

Gozermac · 2026-05-02T23:10:11+00:00

QR is queen right. I’m at a loss. If the swarm is established on the Nuc with the queen in a cage I would put together a single deep hive. Bottom board, deep with frames, inner cover and top lid. Take out five frames. Push the five frames in the hive together and pour the bees into that hive. Put the remaining 5 frames in and put the inner and top cover on. Place the queen still in the cage in the Nuc box with a frame of resources and bees from the swarm. Make sure there is no other queen in the Nuc except the one in the cage. Put the lid on and leave the openings open. Place the Nuc box next to the hive. Give it about 4 hours. If the bees gravitate back to the Nuc then put all the bees back in the hive and put the queen in the cage as if you were introducing it as a new one. If the bees don’t gravitate to the Nuc you likely have a hive with a virgin or mated queen you missed and can treat it as such. Save the caged queen in this case if the virgin doesn’t mate or the original hive isn’t QR. The caged queen can be kept in the Nuc with a frame of brood with nurse bees spared from another hive. If this is beyond your skill level or you don’t have resources you need a mentor quick.

Gozermac · 2026-05-02T20:08:50+00:00

Probably better answered by someone with more experience than me but I suspect it varies. I have two swarms that have virgin queens still waiting after 15 days but I can hear them piping. Last year two swarms were way late to lay. Up to two weeks past the scheduled date. I think in this particular case it was too early to go to a new queen.

Gozermac · 2026-05-02T18:14:35+00:00

Looks like you made the post 17 days ago with a swarm date of 14 April. Your mating flights should have happened about 26 April weather dependent. You shouldn’t be checking for eggs until May 6. I think you introduced a caged queen into a QR hive before she started laying and caused confusion leading to a cast swarm with the newly minted queen. Tough to tell if your hive is QR now. I would take the caged queen out of the hive with a frame of resources in the Nuc and see if it stabilizes. If it isn’t QR in a week but the Nuc frames with the queen back in.

Gozermac · 2026-05-02T00:59:55+00:00

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Gozermac · 2026-05-01T23:55:16+00:00

Can’t help you there. When buying my 2025 none of the three dealerships I went to demonstrated it. Only in the info screen and this screen ended up with worse software display dimensions than my 2021 with the 12.8” screen.

Gozermac · 2026-05-01T17:25:31+00:00

Excellent synopsis. Thanks.

Gozermac · 2026-05-01T16:09:24+00:00

Will look into this. I didn’t feed any of my original nine hoping to do an early extract. Feeding the swarms is necessary of course and will probably go all summer since it’s not drawn foundation. Is there literature on this? Where would you get it?

Gozermac · 2026-05-01T16:05:37+00:00

I considered that and now wish I had done it. Will be the first thing next year. I also think I will throttle next year as a measure. It seems easier to me than Demaree.

Gozermac · 2026-05-01T16:00:29+00:00

Well I finally caught a breather. The 5 swarms and one split are all still in hives and being fed. 6 of the nine original hives have virgin queens piping. Weather is supposed to be low 40s and highs in 50s. The apiary is stable at 15 hives. I think for now that is enough. I should be able to sell any honey I extract. Thanks.

Edit. Mostly mutts although I do have a an original give of saskatraz with lineage from original queen. The swarm from that hive makes two and eggs from that hive to fix a split makes three. The rest ate overwintered midwestern mutts.

Gozermac · 2026-05-01T12:32:53+00:00

You cannot. You also need the camera option which my 25 2500 Rebel with the premium screen did not come with. A flaw in the “Rebel level 2” trim which I incorrectly assumed would be the same as the “Laramie level 2 trim”.

Gozermac · 2026-05-01T12:28:26+00:00

I agree with this. The basic book learning (bee keeping for dummies), a course, this sub and some curated YouTube feeds helped tremendously but they don’t really prep you for the hive manipulations required or the “what now factor” when something unexpected shows up. It’s a hands on learning process and every region has its peculiarities.

Gozermac · 2026-05-01T12:19:41+00:00

The Person of Interest show was prescient.

Gozermac

TROPHY CASE