LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!!!
Or something like that!
I opened my pkged. bees hive yesterday to see if the queen was released from her little cage, and she was. The frame that I removed to get the queen's cage, they were starting to make comb on. They are all over the pollen patties and drinking the syrup water with no problems.
My swarm bees, were still stuck up on the inner lid. I had DH help me and we shook them back into the brood box, and put in the frames that I took out to accomodate their balling issue. COme to find out, they were building comb on the inner lid. We scraped that off and set the lid back on. Hopefully we didn't upset them too much -per GLC's story I'm nervous now. They're using the pollen patty but I don't think they are impressed with it, but they are using just as much syrup water as the pkged. bees are. We got to see the queen. I'm not opening that box again for awhile. What they decide to do in there is gonna have to be. I'm not "remodeling" their hive anymore.
GLC, they are the same bee coloring. The only difference I can see in the 2 hives is the size is the swarm bees all seem to be on the larger size, where the pkgd. bees have differnent sizes of bees, small to average. The pkged. bees do a lot swirling and buzzing around their hive, the swarm has very little activity compared to the other. They I think are on a mission, know what to do and just do it. They are in and out of that hive in a flash. They don't hang out, nothing. That 's why I thought something was wrong with them because they didn't seem that active. They were just darn effecient at what they do.
I'll update after the weekend. I work every Fri, sat, and Sun. With Mon. being the holiday, we have picnics to go to, so it may not be until then. I'll let you know if I still have tenants in the swarm hive.