Very cool Vin.
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Great stuff, Vin. Very interesting.
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Very cool, Vin!
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Glad you answered my question about knowing which one was the queen. I am so into this now.
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So when you introduce a new queen to the hive, what happens to the current queen, Vin?
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A colony will often introduce a new queen to the hive themselves if they sense the old queen is slowing down because her egg laying production drops or pheromones aren't as strong. They literally raise a new queen. Since the new queen comes from an egg laid by the old queen, they are often allowed to co-exist in the hive as genetically they are mother/daughter. If the hive doesn't WANT two queens, they kill the older one once the younger one is established.

The above is wholly based on what I learned in the classes I took, and doesn't represent any firsthand experiences. However, many of the blogs I follow seem to confirm it.
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Too and this doesn't work with ex wives and new wives .. would make things o much simpler.... and cheaper too.

Thanks for the posts and pictures, a lot of very cool stuff here. :-)
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Vin, this thread is awesome. I'm sure that if you bring the same passion you have for cigars to this you'll have great success.

I was wondering what your dog thinks of this. I forgot that sweeties name:-). I'm so looking forward to seeing the hive. Hope there will be a lecture (in full bee uniform)!:-)
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Jayda's been outside and near the hive, but hasn't really shown any interest in it. My guess is the bees will let her know if she's becoming a nuisance. :-)
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Beat me to it. :-)
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Bring Out Your Dead!

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Bees die after about 6 weeks. And those that live like to keep a tidy hive.

Usually the worker bees will drag the bodies of their fallen brothers & sisters out of the hive and fly off a bit to drop them away from the hive. But it's been raining, and bees don't like the rain, so they've deposited the cadavers on their front porch for the time being.
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That's what it is, Vin, but it gets bigger.
Most times the girls will feed up a number of ladies with royal jelly, turning them into queens.
When the very first queen erupts, she runs around and chews the heads off the other queens while they're still in the comb.
That also depends.
Generally she'll eat all their heads. If she leaves one, she has reason.
Mostly it's hive strength.

This is cool...
You know how you're to NEVER set a hive in the shade because "the bees get aggressive"?
And this is partly my personal feeling or theory mixed with my own stuff from studying and working with critters and sh1t my entire life.
It's hive temperature.
Bees are extremely intelligent and sensitive.
If something has happened to the hive that's caused the population to be just right for the hive, the new queen eats some serious heads.
If it's low, and the hive is going to swarm, maybe a new queen.
Depends. Large, healthy colony or sick small one?

Small and sick, Likely an extra queen. I case.
The hive will swarm to find a smaller home that they can support with their population, move in, recover and survive to grow. Or not. Depends how sick they got. You understand susceptibility, I won't blather on that.

Healthy hive. They move because it's too hot or too cold and they get b1tchy, exactly like we do.
The standing queen will let a queen live, and maybe two. One to replace her. Depends on her age. Another wrinkly but that's not gonna happen often, the "let 2 new queens live".

That's enough typing.
And this stuff is obviously deeper, but I know you'll think it into submission. Or call me.
But it's temperature in the hive.
You can use the same question to answer "why does part of the hive swarm sometimes, but the whole swarms sometimes?"
You won't find an answer for that anywhere. Or maybe you will now. That was the 64 dollar question years ago.
But it's easy enough to figure out.
Temperature.
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Oh, the new queen thing, also temperature induced in most cases. Or in all.
A young queen can take the stress. The old one can't.
Temperature causes the slowing egg production, too.
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Come to Butthead.
:-) :-) :-)
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Interesting Stuff On Bees, My Friends!:-):-)
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Some New Information I Found:
http://www.buzzaboutbees.net/swarmingbees.html
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Appreciate all the great info - guys: thanks!

Was able to observe the hive a great deal this weekend while spreading what seemed like a metric ton of bark mulch in the yard.

It was pretty cool to see the bees coming back to the hive carrying pollen balls. They actually have an area on their hind legs called a pollen basket, and as they collect pollen during their foraging, they roll it together in a ball and carry it in the pollen basket. Was reading they can carry their weight in pollen, and an average colony will collect 100 pounds of it during the course of a season.
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And here's one of the girls working a basket of hanging flowers I put near the hive. You can see she is carrying a pollen ball too.
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We opened up the hive tonight to remove the feeder frame and replace it with a regular frame.

The bees had been building some comb in the open space between the inner cover and the tops of the frames. That's because I was using a one-inch spacer board to allow the bees access to the pollen patty. I removed that as well -- they seem to be gathering sufficient resources and the patty is no longer needed. With the spacer board gone, the inner cover will sit just above the frames, and there won't be sufficient space for the bees to build excess comb. Now they fully concentrate on building the frames.

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Took my first sting tonight while chiseling the comb off the inner cover. I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. My fault for wearing shorts. Got me just below the knee. Felt barley more than a mosquito bite though.

Saving all the comb for future use (lots of uses for beeswax, but you need A LOT of it).
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Awesome pics and information. Love at First Sting- great Scorpions album btw.

Tom, remember wear shirts with sleeves and no shorts, you might wanna invest in actual shoes as well. :-)
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