On Monday I picked up a new queen and dropped her in the hive as soon as I got home. It was dark, thanks to this silly time thing, it's now dark when I get home at 6pm. But I quickly put her queen cage in the hive and closed it up. That was not easy, it being dark and all and me only using a flashlight. The girls quickly got aggressive so I was as quick as I could be and closed it up.

I should have scraped off the queen cells. I knew putting a queen in there with queen cells was not recommended. If one of the new queens hatched, they're gonna fight. I could lose one or both of the new potential queens. But it being dark, and the bees being pissy, I just did what I could and what happens, happens.

I was eager for Saturday and daylight so I could see what's going on in there. So I suited up and got to it.

Annnnd things are bad. I did not find any eggs. I'm thinking that either they rejected the new queen immediately, or a hatched queen took her out. If that's the case and I have a virgin queen in there, ok. She'll hopefully mate and start laying eggs soon. But they were REALLY SUPER PISSY today. They were frankly the angriest I've ever seen them. And that's not good.

They let me know just how unhappy they were to see me by giving me my first sting, and then a second one for good measure. I was wearing my bee jacket, hood and gloves, and yoga pants. They got me through the terrible bee protection that is yoga pants at the top inside of my right thigh. It wasn't as bad as I feared. It hurt for about 30 seconds and then nothing. I'll live. And I was mostly sorry for the two girls that sacrificed themselves today, but also oddly thankful that they broke the ice. I haven't been stung by a bee since I was a kid and I didn't remember what it was like. It was honestly no big deal. At least for me, and for the area of the sting. So that happened.

I came in and also put on my bee suit pants then went out again to finish checking the frames and closing it up as quickly as possible.

Another terrible thing is that there are chewed caps on some of the remaining brood. This can happen from wax moths, or because the bees sense something wrong with the developing bee inside. From the looks of it, I think it's the latter. If it were moths, there would be more destruction of the surrounding cells as the moth travels across the frame feeding on the wax. This looks to be the intentional opening of cells to clear out the pupae inside. Bee Guru confirmed this for me.

Neat photo, but this is not a good sign.

Bee Guru said it might be because of a mite infestation. If the girls sense a problem, like maybe smelling mites in the cell, they will open it and kill and remove the bee inside. Which is why I'm also treating for mites. It's easy, I added two Avipar strips to the hive. The bees will walk over the strips, picking up the insecticide which kills mites but is harmless to the bees. After 6 weeks, I'll remove the strips. I should have been doing this anyway. But I wasn't because I'm a newbee and just didn't realize that I needed to, I didn't see any problems. Ugh. Lesson learned? Don't wait until problems happen. Bee proactive.

All in all guys, my hive is not doing well. I might lose this colony. I am absolutely not throwing in the towel, but I am going to wait a couple weeks before checking again. If there is a queen, I'll know. If there is no more brood, I'll reassess. And hopefully buy yet another $35 bug... if I can find one. The queen bee people had slim pickings on Monday. I got one of only two queens left. But there are mail-order options, so well.... I just have to wait and see.

If I can't get a queen, I will be forced to wait until spring. And at that time I will start a 2nd hive as well. Because I'm really really wishing I had a second hive right NOW. People, if you want to start beekeeping, don't do what I did. Start with two hives. 🐝