# It's been a while



## farmnewbie (Apr 18, 2014)

Hi there! It's been a while since I've been in this forum and I thought I would ask your opinion on my hive(s). I will give a little background. Last year I bought by first 2 hives, 2 nucs. 1 did great and one not so much. The smaller one ended up dying this winter, opened up the hive and it was empty, so they starved. I never did anything with the hive. Just dumped out what I could of the dead bees and then just left it sitting next to the other hive with lots of bees in it. So I have been slacking BIG time this year. I didn't do a spring inspection, so in May I was out in my garden and noticed a big bussing sound and after searching found my hive swarmed. After they settled down I went and got everything I needed to put them into the dead hive, but as I was walking over to get them, I watched them fly away. Never caught them. Bummer. So I was gonna wait a few weeks to do an inspection to make sure they made a new queen. Well a couple weeks turned into a month...maybe close to 2 months. Well the other day I went out to its peek at them flying in and out and noticed that there was quite a few bees flying in and out of the dead hive! So I popped open the top of the hive to take a peek and there were tons of bees in there. So since it was dusk I went inside and the next day I went out to do an inspection. I started with the smaller (dead) hive. The top super was like empty. Nothing going on. Bottom mostly empty but 2-3 frames had a bunch of bees and liquid in them. I didn't see any eggs or larva but I didn't get the time to do a full look. I actually never even pulled the frame that had the most bees on it cause my 2 year old came out butt







naked and wanting me lol. So I closed that hive up and opened up the big one quick but I wasn't able to do anything there. Noticed the top super was full of honey, which I have 2 deep brood boxes and a honey super on that hive. So since that was full I added another honey super to that hive and gonna go out with my husband and do a full inspection so he can help me lift supers off. They are HEAVY!! Anyway, do you think my hive spit again and went into the dead hive? Is that a chance? Would there be a chance that they made a queen in the hive next door for that hive? It looked as if there was an opened queen cell maybe in the dead hive, but is that even possible? I'm so curious to see what happens with my hives. It would be SO awesome if there are 2 hives with good laying queens cause there is a chance nobody has a queen lol. I added a pic so you can see how close the hives are to one another. I took the pic after I added the honey super on the bigger hive. 
Ok. Sorry so long. Just wanted to get your opinions. Thanks!!


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

It is possible you had several swarms and one moved in the dead out.

 Al


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

The thing I kept thinking while reading this was......how did she stay out of her hives for that long? I keep a large number of hives so that I don't overly irritate any one hive by visiting too often 

Alleyoopers guess is a good one. It's a wonder that the wax moths didn't take it over.


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## farmnewbie (Apr 18, 2014)

I know I know. I have WANTED to go out into the hives but this year has been crazy and honestly I'm not sure why, but this spring I kinda got a little scared of my bees. Really not sure why. Never gave me a reason to. Except the large number of bees in the hive lol. Anyway thanks and I'm also surprised it didn't get taken over by wax moths, there was none in there. Crazy! I got lucky. Now let's hope things stay well.


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