Over the winter my 3 hives each died. I did a post-mortum on two so far. The first had lots of uncapped honey in other parts of the colony. The bees that were in the top box were head-first into the cells so I think they starved. I'm not sure why there was so much uncapped honey. I did not notice any obvious signs of disease. The second colony had some empty queen cells so I think it there was a problem with the queen and the colony died. I have not yet examined the third colony.
I picked up a package of bees from Spicer Bees on 4/23. I removed the empty queen cage a couple of days later--weather permitting.
I picked up a package of bees from Sparky's Honey & Maple on 4/28. On 5/3 I took queen cages out of the hive and saw eggs on a frame. I did not search for the queen. When I was putting the queen cage into the colony on the 28th I saw another queen lose in the hive. I put her into another queen cage and put both into the hive. I'm glad there were 2 because the first queen in the cage looked underdeveloped.
I am still waiting for my 3rd package from Royal Bees and Honey. Weather permitting I will look for the queen in the first hive or at least checking for eggs.
