# I'm a beekeeper!!



## Maddiequus (Nov 4, 2003)

Picked up two nucs on Saturday, from locally raised and overwintered. Yesterday I moved them into their hives.

First, let me say THANK YOU to all who offer their advice, wisdom, and experience. This forum, along with several websites and books, has been an absolutely invaluable source of information and encouragement. Keep teaching new-bees like me!!!

Second, wow was it intimidating to handle all those bees. My dad gave me the best advice ever - "bees move slowly, make sure you do too." I smoked them to let them know I was coming in, and every time they started flying up at me I would stop what I was doing and wait for them to chill. The smoker kept going out so it took longer than I would have liked, but I didn't crush any bees or get stung!!! :nanner:

I do have a couple concerns. 
1 - I put entrance feeders out with fumagillin, but they completely ignored the feeders and have been bringing pollen back to the hive. Can I assume they're healthy???
2 - I found the queen on nuc #1 but not in nuc #2, and #2 seemed more aggressive than #1. How long should I wait before requeening? I know I don't want to leave the hive for long without one.
3 - I saw LOTS of honey, TONS of pollen...but I couldn't find any brood??? Either I didn't know what I was looking for or there's a problem. There were some queen cups on one frame in nuc #1, but no eggs and not capped. 
If I can't find the queen in nuc #2 can/should I allow nuc #1 to lay/cap a queen cup and use it in nuc #2?

All 5 frames in both nucs were completely drawn so I am planning to add a second deep next week.


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## RaigenB (Apr 8, 2013)

Congrats!! We are almost done building our hives  (making 2) its been exciting! Good luck!


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Congratulations on joining the obsession!! LOL
Don't worry about whether the bees are taking the feed or not. If they're finding sources, they will ignore the feed for something more natural.
Look back over a bunch of pictures and refresh your memory about what brood will look like, both in the larval stage as well as when it's capped. It will look different than capped honey. It will also normally be found in the center of the hive. It should be a 'circle' of brood with empty cells on the outside of that and then honey and pollen on the outside of that. Once you're confident that you know what you're looking for, go back into both hives and compare. Don't bother looking for the queen, just look for brood. If you find brood in one, but not in the other hive, you can take a frame or two of brood out of the queen-rite hive, brush off the bees and quickly put it in the queen-less hive. The bees there will accept the brood and will hopefully find some eggs that they can then turn into a queen cell. Of course if you know you have a frame with a queen cell on it, by all means, take that frame once the queen cell is capped! 
Good luck!


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