Do224's latest activity

Ah ok, I thought nucing the queen was necessary to prevent losing a swarm. So it’s ok to reduce to one queen cell and leave the existing...

They will still try to swarm but if the queen is clipped you won't lose the bees. They will return to the hive when they realise the...

I’m still confused. Why do you choose to clip the queen instead of nucing her in this scenario?

Can you explain your thinking behind this? Why won’t they still try to swarm with the clipped queen and failing that with the virgin...

Well rightly or wrongly I’ve combined them with a q+ nuc now. Perhaps I should have waited longer then

Yes but remember to remove the test frame if there are larvae viable enough to make more queen cells while uniting

They’ve got two supers on. I want to combine with a q+ nuc. Do I just put newspaper and a qx over the top super then transfer the nuc to...

Sounds like they are queenless

Yes, emerged queen cell seen on 19th (it was still capped on 18th). This seemed very late for emergence though as the queen was nuc’d on...

Should I assume this hive is queenless based on what has happened? Virgin emerged on 19th so surely they shouldn’t be drawing cells now...

Everything open round here from lime to blackberry and all my swarm and split hives have filled at least one super in a week. The only...

Checked this frame today and it was full of capped cells. No idea what to think. Tore the cells down

I expect that’s what has happened in both instances. I really don’t think either of these will have a queen with them. It’s happened to...

I wonder if a swarm has arrived & then left again, and these are a few bees left behind. I'd move the hive and shake them out near your...

It's not that bad ... cut a few of the lumps and bumps off it ... another year or two in it ...I've got worse in some of my hives...