Should I worry yet?

[MaryBeth]

I installed bees into two top bar hives two days ago, so I've been beekeeping for a whopping two days. I kind of screwed up and released the queens directly instead of letting the bees eat through the candy, but I was out of town when the bees came so I'm hoping that the weekend they spent together before I hived them was enough.

I went there this morning to feed them and one of the hives had dead bodies all over the bottom board. It looked like a holocaust. I almost cried because I thought they were all dead, but when I moved a couple more bars there were bees crawling around.

The other hive has a window, and when I opened it, the bees were in a big ball in the corner. There were a few dead ones, but nothing like the other hive.

Is there anything I should/can do? Is my first hive dying already? do you think they killed the queen? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Candiebears]

I wish I could help... But I've only got 4 days under my belt :(

[Maggiesdad]

Are you open feeding inside your hive? Does the sad hive have a cluster at all?  If it's too cold to get out and forage, then you've got hungry bees. Warm syrup touching the cluster will cheer them up.

If you can, put your location by your name, it's helps beeks local to you give pertinent info.

[MaryBeth]

I'm in West Harrison, IN near Cincinnati. 

I have a feeder in the hive. I got one of those top feeders that look like an upside down plastic cup and made a slot in the divider so I can slide the bottom part through.  I put nearly a half gallon of syrup in there and it's about half gone. I'll put more in tomorrow.

[Maggiesdad]

That part's good!

How about the sad hive - no cluster at all?, just dead bees on the floor?

[MaryBeth]

There seems to be some clustering. I opened another bar and a bunch started crawling out. They were kind of sluggish. I thought maybe because of the cold.

When i got the box, it looked like some of them were fighting.  Today, two of them got up on top of the bars and one was on top of the other one. I don't know whether they were fighting or the one wanted to drag the other inside. I used my brush and gently swished them both back inside.

[Kathyp]

what % would you say were dead?  you say you put 1/2 gallon in there.  did you feed both hives?  any sign of robbing that might have caused them to fight an die?

[MaryBeth]

I didn't want to take any more bars off the hive to get an idea how many were left so I don't know a percentage, but the bottom board is covered in dead bees.

There shouldn't have been robbing. Both hives got plenty of syrup and they both had about half of it left this morning. I'll be back there tomorrow to feed them more. Hopefully I'll know more.

What happens if they kill the queen? Do they turn on each other after that or do they just fly away?

[Kathyp]

the queen was caged in the box for several days?  they probably didn't kill her.  if you find she is dead, you can combine those bees with your others.  if that hives does well, you can split it later.  I know this is the tbh section, but you have chosen a bit of a hard way to start.  if you get in there tomorrow see if you can take some pictures of what you see so that we can know better how to help you.  hopefully with some pictures some of the experienced TBH people can help you out.

[Maggiesdad]

They should have a couple inches of comb started. Try to get a straight on closeup of the comb,the queen will start laying once the cells are 1/4"  deep. If you've got single eggs in there, you're golden.

[MaryBeth]

Good news! They aren't all dead!

I went back today to feed them and the death toll wasn't as bad as it looked initially. There probably a hundred bee bodies. And a lot of poop. I thought they were cleaner than that.

I moved the divider and found them clustered in a corner. I couldn't tell if there was comb yet in either of my hives. They don't seem to be eating much.

The bottom board is removable, so I took it out and dumped the dead bees.

They seemed more active today, probably because it was a bit warmer. There was action around the entrance and several flew around to check me out when I was messing in the hive. Fingers crossed that all is well.

[Michael Bush]

>I kind of screwed up and released the queens directly instead of letting the bees eat through the candy, but I was out of town when the bees came so I'm hoping that the weekend they spent together before I hived them was enough.

If you had left them in the cage you would have screwed up... you did the right thing.  Otherwise you'd have some messed up comb, which would lead to more messed up comb...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespackages.htm#donthangqueencage