Day 75 – Potential and Real Disasters

Bill and Agnes came over to help me with the missing queen. Bill immediately notices that something is wrong even before opening the hive. He says that there are no bees returning with pollen, which means, there is no need for pollen, which means there is no brood. We look all frames over.
  

We find 3 queen cups, and one of them is closed! Bill says that this is great. There should be a queen emerging within a week. He says to check a week later.

After Bill and Agnes are gone, Sylvie and I go for our walk. Not too far from our home, I take this picture of a bee in some dandelion. Sylvie thinks it is one of hours. But I say that it could be others as well. I guess it is about 500 meters from where we live -- as the crow flies. When we get home, I go into the garden to do some work. A little later, my Portuguese neighbor Maria calls meand asks me to come to her garden. I follow her and . . .

. . . I see this swarm. Oh wow! Are these mine? Maria thinks so. I go to the phone and call Bill. His wife answers and tells me that he will call back. I use Sylvie's cell phone to call Agnes. But she is not in either. I take a cardboard box and get ready to capture it when Bill finally calls. He gives me some instructions and then I go to it, scraping the bees with a piece of cardboard into a box. Bill calls again and tells me to give some sirup. I have already done that. But he also suggests adding some drawn comb and some storage. I use a frame from my queenless hive because we thought of maybe combining the two colonies.
  

I dump the bees into an empty hive that I had constructed and as a spare in the basement. I made a few more trips capturing the other parts of the split swarm and drop them onto the landing board of the third hive. Some cluster below the board. About one hour later, all of them have entered.
  Two days later, on Monday, Bill comes and we check on the hive. There is already some additional comb drawn and the bees have begun to convert the sirup into stored food. Bill says they look happy. But we cannot find the queen. Perhaps later during the week, toward the end, I should be able to see some eggs.
  On Tuesday I see some bees returning with pollen. I hope this is a good sign. They have finished their sirup, too. I am eagerly awaiting the end of the week to seewhether there are eggs and whether I can see the queen.