Need mentor in Covina – my hive confuses me

[Enci Box]

I’m very appreciative of this forum and all the workshops that are offered to members. Unfortunately a lot of the workshops and events are too far for us to travel to as we live now in Covina. So I try to educate myself online and through books. It would however be nice if I could find someone nearby who could help us when we need hands-on advice.

I’ve inspected our feral hive the second time since the bees moved in sometime in June. The inspection took place at around 6pm. The hive is a medium box with ten frames in it. The bees have multiplied a lot since end of June. They built a lot of comb inside (if I remember it right, six or seven frames out of ten have now combs on them). Most of the combs have capped brood but not very many. I don’t see any open brood and most combs are empty. Only one of the combs has some honey. In June there was open and capped brood and lots of honey. I couldn’t see any queen nor could I see any drones. 🙁 I could only see a few bees with pollen on their legs.

I’m not sure what all this means. There are A LOT of bees in the box, the entrance is filled with workers cleaning, a bee goes in once in a while with pollen on it’s legs and they are building combs. But where are the drones? Where is the queen? Where is the honey? Should I add a new box on top or should I wait until there is more honey and brood?

Any help is appreciated!

Enci

[susan rudnicki]

HI, Enci—there are a lot of questions here that could be interpreted wrongly, so the best assessment would be a hands-on mentoring situation. You are right to think that this is very important, as the hive YOU have and the situations it is showing you can only be fully addressed by a site visit. Unfortunately, our very small group of qualified mentors is all on the Westside of LA or in the Pasadena, Echo Park, SilverLake area. There are only about 4 of us all together and many more newbees than teachers.
I would post for a mentor to do the drive to Covina with a offer to pay for the time and effort and perhaps someone would make the trip. Maybe there are some HoneyLove members out Covina way, but none I know of—more importantly, there are no mentors.
How much is a good compensation? I go for $85 and stay as long as the student needs me for the visit. Then I stay in touch by email and phone.

[Enci Box]

Susan,

Thank you for your offer and sorry for not replying sooner. I ended up checking my hive a couple of times since I wrote this topic and all is wonderful with the bees. They are making lots of honey and they seem to be thriving. My front yard now has native flowers blooming so we are feeding the bees with the best food there is. 🙂 The queen I haven’t been able to spot yet but we have brood and lots of workers entering the hive with pollen on their little legs. I’m excited about hopefully being able to harvest honey in a few months.

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