B2: Bad Bee News

I have been putting off checking B2 the last few days because it has been cooler and breezy. Today was calm so even-though my excellent photographer wasn't here to document it all I still had to do it.

So far so good some activity at the entrance, pollen being gathered.

Under the hive cover not much activity around the inner cover.

Looking better, I see some new drawn comb. Bees working.

Oh No! Where is the rubber band? Did the cage fall? Sinking feeling

Cage is still in place. Queen has been released, but where is she?

Bad news on the bee front, the big waxy cell on the side of the frame is called a “Supersede Cell.” Looks like supersede procedures have begun and Queen Bingo was nowhere to be found. Looks like she is either gone for good or not the Queen the hive needs her to be.

Today I only saw a handful of eggs and less than 10 larva. Hopefully the queen was here as recently as 3 days ago. Will do thorough hive check on the weekend to see the status of the queen, even if I missed her, the fact that the hive started with making the cell tells me she was either rejected by them or in poor health. It is good that they had some eggs in order to go into emergency mode, I just hope the eggs I saw are actually fertile eggs and not the byproduct of a laying worker. An egg produced by a worker is infertile and can only become a drone.

Now putting these photos together I have this sinking feeling that when the bees chewed through the rubber band, when it snapped could it be possible that it killed the queen or injured her? I may never find out, but I do know next time around I am going to play it safe and move to twine or florist wire just in case that is what caused this current situation.