In a few days I need to check the queen cages to see if the queen has escaped. I forgot to take a nail and poke the candy a little to expedite the queen’s escape from the cage.
There is a place for the queen and a few of her friends and there is a plug of candy blocking the way out. She’ll eat her way out and other bees will be eating their way in.
I opened the top of the hive to check the feeders and there were lots of bees drinking the sugar syrup. I will buy 20 pounds of sugar on the way home today. The cheapest is ShopRite brand 5 pound bags. I would like to try one of the big box stores, but I don’t know anyone who has one of their passes to loan to me.
Thursday or Friday I will suite up when I get home and check the girls out. If they have escaped I’ll remove the cage and put the 10th frame back in. I am nervous that I did something wrong so I might check before that. They tell you not to open the hive while the queen is getting acquainted, but I am a little antsy about this.
I did notice lots of clumping in the packages around what might have been a queen. It makes sense that a queen would get sucked up with the bees when they make the package. This might mean that I have double the chance of a queen making it alive.
I’ll feed them as long as they take sugar. The Martha hive is looking more poorly than ever and I expect it to be gone by the time the Nucs arrive on the 15th.
