queen bee question

A place for bee-ginners to ask questions and receive answers from experienced beekeepers.
Post Reply
User avatar
lester1
Forum Regular
Posts: 8
Joined: July 18th, 2017, 6:52 pm

queen bee question

Unread post by lester1 »

I got 5-6 small beehives from a friend over 2 months ago. They are about 12" by 14" and loaded with bees. I have looked very carefully in each one and have yet to see a queen bee. Can these hives survive this long without a queen? If so, how long? They consume over a gallon of sugar water in a day and a half.
Regards,
Ron
User avatar
Countryboy
Forum Regular
Posts: 605
Joined: November 8th, 2010, 9:37 pm
Location: Central Ohio
Contact:

Re: queen bee question

Unread post by Countryboy »

Do you have brood? As long as you have worked brood, you know you have a queen, even if you don't see her.

12 by 14 inches is an odd size for boxes.

You should really consider adding supers for the bees.
B. Farmer Honey
Central Ohio
User avatar
BadBeeKeeper
Site Admin
Posts: 144
Joined: April 2nd, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: Penobsot County, Maine

Re: queen bee question

Unread post by BadBeeKeeper »

You asked this same question a month ago, on July 19...except then it was ten hives given to you two weeks earlier.

In either case, since honey bees only live about six weeks in Summer, if there were no queens you would now have no bees. So, you either have queens, or you do not have 'honey bees'.

Last month you were asked for more information, particularly pictures of these hives and bees, so that we might be of more assistance to you but you have not provided it. You have to help us if we are to be able to help you, we cannot reach into your mind with a Vulcan mind-meld or mental telepathy to see what you see, pictures are worth thousands of words.

People want to help you, but you must do your part in order for it to happen...or are you not really serious about wanting/needing/getting help?
User avatar
lester1
Forum Regular
Posts: 8
Joined: July 18th, 2017, 6:52 pm

Re: queen bee question

Unread post by lester1 »

Actually it was 10 hives that I rec'd, but discarded some as there were only a few bees. I tried to send pics on the attachments here but it indicated the file was too large.
However, you did answer my question as to the life of bees. Hives are still loaded with bees.
User avatar
lester1
Forum Regular
Posts: 8
Joined: July 18th, 2017, 6:52 pm

Re: queen bee question

Unread post by lester1 »

Countryboy wrote: August 18th, 2017, 8:42 pm Do you have brood? As long as you have worked brood, you know you have a queen, even if you don't see her.

12 by 14 inches is an odd size for boxes.

You should really consider adding supers for the bees.
I agree these are odd size, apparently homemade. I will make some supers for these and see what happens.
Thanks
User avatar
BadBeeKeeper
Site Admin
Posts: 144
Joined: April 2nd, 2016, 2:01 pm
Location: Penobsot County, Maine

Re: queen bee question

Unread post by BadBeeKeeper »

lester1 wrote: August 19th, 2017, 10:15 am I tried to send pics on the attachments here but it indicated the file was too large.
So, you can either reduce the size of the current images, or change the settings in your camera to create smaller images and re-take them.

The file-size of the image is directly related to the size of the image itself (in pixels, the dimensions of the image) and to the amount of detail contained in the image (number of colors, etc.).

Image size in pixels would be a number such as 640x480, 1024x768, 1280x1024, etc.

Color depth would be represented by a number in the range of 65 thousand or 16 million or 32 million; or a number/letter combination such as 8bpp, 16bpp, 32bpp, etc; or selections that say something like 'Normal', 'Fine' and 'Super Fine'.

The letters 'bpp' above stand for 'bits per pixel', and multiplying that number by the image size in pixels would give you an approximate representation of the file size. For example, an image size of (640 x 480 = 307,200) x 8bpp = 2,457,600 bits of information in the image.

The same image at a color-depth of 32bpp would have 9,830,400 bits of information. Divide that number by 8 to get the size in bytes (= 1,228,800), then divide that number by 1,000 to get the [approximate] number that computers commonly use to represent file sizes (1228.8k or 1.2m). (For technical reasons that I won't go into because I get the impression that you won't understand them, this is only an approximate number, the 'file-size' shown to you by the computer will be different but not by a lot.)

An image editing program such as 'Paint', which has been provided free with [most] Windows operating systems since at least Win 3.1 will easily let you reduce the file-size(s) of the current image(s) that you have, or simply reduce the settings in the camera and create new images.
Post Reply