First shot at foundationless: Amazing!

[TimLa]

Last year I installed a package of Italians on a deep full of Plasticell around April 20th, and I think it was around mid July that I had to add a medium (also plasticell).  The bad weather and my not feeding them long enough probably set them back quite a bit. Then the bear attack in August, and all was lost.

This year, I installed a package of Italians on a medium with Plasticell starter strips.  This was about 5PM Wednesday.
Thursday, released the queen, put out a 1 qt syrup waterer about 20 feet away.
Friday, added a Deep on top of the inner cover, along with a gallon of syrup in a waterer.
Saturday (today), I had to remove two frames as the queen cage was laying in the bottom of the hive.

HOLY COW!  They've already built comb in a center frame about 5 inches across the top, to within 1/2 inch from the bottom bar!  It's the size of my hand!  This is in exactly 72 hours, and they're not consuming syrup very much, either.  Looks to be about the same cell size as the plasticell, hard to tell without a micrometer. a couple of cell have a reddish/brown liquid in them, don't know what that might be - pollen, perhaps?  No eggs that I could see.  Nothing capped, of course.  Another very cool thing is that the comb they are building lines up perfectly with the slot in the bottom of the frame.

Dandelions are just starting to bloom, same with huckleberry, fruit trees look like end of next week up here, then salmonberry, thimbleberry then acres of blackberry.  Alder started off last week, the maples are probably two weeks out.

So, now I will leave the little darlings to their tasks and not open again until next Saturday, as I think I've messed with them enough.  Temperatures are finally reaching 70 on Monday, and I've got five more mediums full of frames built and ready to go.

Looks like I'll need them, at this rate!

Happy days!  No bears this year.  5,000 volt fence charger should take care of that little issue.  If not, well, there are other ways that we can deal with that sort of thing.  Too bad bear meat is so greasy:-)

-T

[JP]

"a couple of cell have a reddish/brown liquid in them, don't know what that might be - pollen, perhaps?"

If its really liquid, probably uncapped honey, but it may just be bee bread, which is nectar and pollen.

Did it look like this? http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/April222008#5192244428147840050


...JP

[rickomatic]

Thursday, released the queen

I installed my first 2 packages Wednesday. As a newbee, I'm still a bit confused about releasing the queen. I thought I was supposed to put little marshmallows where the cork was and let the workers eat it and release her themselves. Should I go ahead and release her myself? I wasn't going to even look into the hive until a week had passed.
Thoughts?

[JP]

So did you put the marshmellows where the cork goes? If so, the bees have already most likely released your queens.

Go ahead in and take a look if you like.


...JP

[TimLa]

"a couple of cell have a reddish/brown liquid in them, don't know what that might be - pollen, perhaps?"

If its really liquid, probably uncapped honey, but it may just be bee bread, which is nectar and pollen.

Did it look like this? http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/April222008#5192244428147840050


...JP

Some of the cells in the upper right of that photo look about right - I'm thinking you're right, it's probably bee bread.

-T

[rickomatic]

Yea, JP, I put the marshmallow in place of the cork. The weather is supposed to be very nice for the next couple days. I've been dying to sneak a peek inside anyway. I was just afraid to disturb them just as they were starting out. I guess I'll just peek to see if the queens got released from their respective cages and not do too much messing around til a full week is over. Then I'll check for comb building, egg laying, etc.

[SgtMaj]

"a couple of cell have a reddish/brown liquid in them, don't know what that might be - pollen, perhaps?"

If its really liquid, probably uncapped honey, but it may just be bee bread, which is nectar and pollen.

Did it look like this? http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/April222008#5192244428147840050


...JP

I didn't realize bee bread had so much stuckko in it.   :-D