Hi - -
Newbee, here. New to the forum, and new to beekeeping, so lots to learn - - - having fun doing it!
First hive started with a few bees, a little brood, and a little honey, quickly blossomed! Now have three or four frames of capped brood, a little bit of capped honey, a little uncapped honeycomb, and several thousand bees.
The queen was of 'unknown origin', but I expect she ran with a bad crowd for awhile. After about 4 weeks, her daughters turned mean - - and got meaner when a violent storm passed through.
When they chased my dog into the car, good producer or not, I decided to re-queen and after 30 or 40 phone calls, found a couple of Italian queens. I gave one to a buddy in the same predicament, and requeened my hive on Thursday, 3/24.
Things are calming down around the hive. I checked to make sure she was released on Monday, 3/28 - - she had. Too many bees to find her easily and I figured the hive had seen enough trauma for awhile. I will check for new brood in a week or so - - -
Question: The bees seemed calmer after three days with the new queen. Is that correct, or wishful thinking on my part? It would seem the old-queen's live bees and brood would keep their nasty ways until they were replaced - - or at least diluted - - by the Italian Queen's offspring, but maybe the 'ok, let's just calm-down, girls' influence of the new queen is felt more immediately.
Thoughts and comments welcome - -