Long Live The Queen!

[spafmagic]

Upon a full inspection that I just completed prior to a Mite Away treatment... I have determined that the status quo from a few weeks ago has changed! My 2019 Queen has either been superseded... or I had a swarm and didn't know it. As it stands, I have a brand new Queen.

Some pics of her new offspring... not sure if I should be concerned about the ones that are pure white hanging slightly out of the cells.

[Nock]

Lots of pollen. 

[van from Arkansas]

I see one small hive beetle, pearl white healthy larva and a few larva in process of being removed.  Lots of bee bread. 

[Nock]

I hate to hijack your thread but since you posted great clear pics of larva of different stages. I?ve yet to try grafting. Plan on it next year. On the top pic. On the fourth row under the bee there are two older larva. In between the two is a young one. Is it the right age to graft?  I see a couple about that size.

[TheHoneyPump]

Hi Nock.  On your grafting larvae question.  Here is your guide:
- if the larva arched shaped like a comma or text bracket  -  (  - Go ahead and graft it.
- if the larva is   -  C  -  shaped the. It is too old, leave it.

The larva in the picture you describe is C shaped.  Therefore too old.


Hi spafmagic,  in the third picture.  I see some chalk brood. Usually from a drop in nurse bee population or temperature, or both.  If there is a new queen and good bee population do not worry about. It will disappear with hygiene and a new prolific queen. Depending where you are, you may be approaching end of season, where consider condensing and compacting the bees into fewer boxes. ( A smaller house is easier to clean and care ).

[Nock]

So more like this one? Thanks HP.

[spafmagic]

And thank you all for the input... @Nock... no prob man.
@TheHoneyPump, August is half way done... soon enough the fall flow will kick in. Definitely have a fair amount of bees in my Jamestown hive. My Kernersville hive is a fair bit more populated.

[Ben Framed]

I am posting this to complement Mr HPs drawing. Picture credit Bob Binnie

[van from Arkansas]

I hate to hijack your thread but since you posted great clear pics of larva of different stages. I?ve yet to try grafting. Plan on it next year. On the top pic. On the fourth row under the bee there are two older larva. In between the two is a young one. Is it the right age to graft?  I see a couple about that size.

Yes, that is the correct age, looks to be about 20-24 hr. has an egg upper right of the larva, just to be sure we are talking about the same larva.

[van from Arkansas]

Hi Nock.  On your grafting larvae question.  Here is your guide:
- if the larva arched shaped like a comma or text bracket  -  (  - Go ahead and graft it.
- if the larva is   -  C  -  shaped the. It is too old, leave it.

The larva in the picture you describe is C shaped.  Therefore too old.


Hi spafmagic,  in the third picture.  I see some chalk brood. Usually from a drop in nurse bee population or temperature, or both.  If there is a new queen and good bee population do not worry about. It will disappear with hygiene and a new prolific queen. Depending where you are, you may be approaching end of season, where consider condensing and compacting the bees into fewer boxes. ( A smaller house is easier to clean and care ).

HP, I enlarged the photo and I cannot see chalkbrood in the bottom pic?  Could you point out the culprit by row column number if you have the time.

[Oldbeavo]

It appears there are 2, almost centre of the picture. If you blow it up there are a few more. They are shrinking in the cell.

[TheHoneyPump]

Yellow circles.
Minor.  Nothing of significance to be concerned about ... yet.  Few pointers made above.
This silly BM board, resolution is lost due to the upload size limit.  Anyways, compare the location of the circles to the original to see them clearly.

If it doesn't clear up once the new queen gets ramped up, start looking very closely, sampling, for varroa mite levels.  These sunken larvae can also be early signs of PMS, parasitic mite syndrome.

[van from Arkansas]

Thank you Mr. Beavo.  I think I see one, center and just to the right side.  My eyes are not as sharp as they used to be, but I can still GO OUT AND COME IN as Mosses used to say to describe good health.

Hope your, Mr. Beavo, side of the world is at peace.

Thank you HP, we post at same time.  Hope peace is with you as well.