First queen check

Well its been 3 days since I put the nucs out. Some activity but not a lot around the fronts. Been busy working on getting the new pool set up.

Nuc 1 on the left side (if standing in front of them) was doing well, the queen was released as expected and was found on the outside most frame. Removed the queen cell and inserted the extra frame (we had left one out so we could put the queen cell in)

Nuc 2 (the other one) on the other hand, is bad news. The bees seemed not to like the new queen and she either died or was stung to death. Found inside her queen cell DOA. The hive has about half the bees in it that I originally put in it 3 days ago, I wonder if a few have defected.

At this point I can't order new queens as I'm about to head out of town for the week. And judging from the lateness of the season, I'm considering combining both nucs into one hive and nursing just one through the winter. Ill consult with Dave and see what he says...

More later