Rob, I installed the box of bees in an existing top bar hive that had drawn comb, honey and pollen. It has been 5 days since they were installed. I found that they had eaten the marshmallow and released the queen. I checked all of the frames and no sign of the queen, eggs or larva. When the bees arrived, the queen cage was not attached to the tab. I found it when I loaded the bees in the hive. It was stuck in the shipping box and I noticed it when the box was on the ground. I then installed it. The bees have cleaned out all of the comb for eggs, but there wasn't a one in sight. I am not sure if she was damaged when I installed the bees. I am feeding the bees, but they don't seem to be taking much food, probably since there is both honey and nectar in the hive and there was already five frames of drawn comb. I hate to wait too long for a queen. I may wait a day or two to check again. If there is no sign of her laying, I will give make a call. He owes me a nuc colony, but said delivery will be something after the 14th, but nothing specific. Maybe I could get a queen from him when I get the nuc colony. Thanks, Hugh From: Rob Belgrod <dorglebbor@gmail.com> Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2023 14:18 To: Hugh Schall <HES@msn.com> Cc: Sangre De Cristo Beekeepers <hive@sdcbeeks.org> Subject: Re: [SDCBeeks] Queen Bees I just got 4 queens from Ken Hays on Wednesday- 505-869-6743 Also, Mark from Zia said he’d have some this coming week I think. (505) 929-8080 I imagine you could let them create their own queens too. Rob Belgrod (he/him) 808.366.9739 Santa Fe, NM On May 14, 2023, at 13:56, Hugh Schall <HES@msn.com<mailto:HES@msn.com>> wrote:  I installed a new box of bees last Tuesday and checked them for the first time today. Queen cage was open but I could not find any evidence of a queen , eggs or larva. Does anyone know where there are available any queen bees in the Santa Fe area? Thanks, Hugh _______________________________________________ hive mailing list hive@lists.sdcbeeks.org<mailto:hive@lists.sdcbeeks.org> http://lists.sdcbeeks.org/listinfo.cgi/hive-sdcbeeks.org