Recent content by ksjs

Lots of non-bee things to do today so have to sign off for now - will have a look at your posts and try to make sense of what I did / didn't do and reply later today / tomorrow. I've just done an inspection of the relevant hive i.e. finished this minutes ago. I think I am even more confused...

On reflection this doesn't actually help as I surely only delay the inevitable? If they want to swarm they will so why not take action now rather than later?

I will go for the culling approach and see where we get to. I meant emerge not 'hatch' - important difference I know. 15th - 17th stands as the date she emerged. But if it was 4 then the 17th is possible. My terminology may be wrong but the critical dates seem right. I understand the cell...

So the QC I introduced was an unsealed cell on the 5th June. I can't say how many days old but I'll estimate between 4 and 6 based on diagrams of QC development I've seen. Therefore earliest she would have hatched is on the 15th and latest would have been the 17th, assuming of course my...

Last week I introduced a sealed QC to a hive, this hive was showing signs of swarming (unsealed QCs). The reason I introduced the QC from another hive is that I liked the parent queen. This was part of an artificial swarm effort (on the hive I introduced the QC to) that clearly hasn't worked...

I said there were eggs 2-3 days after swarm. Subsequent inspections of what I thought was the parent colony convince me that this was the colony that swarmed and that a small prime swarm was lost. I can't be certain just by looking at numbers of bees however but the timings, status of queen...

But the point of this is swarm control / not losing bees. Surely if I leave them (and so allow production of emergency QC) and they're in a mood to swarm, which they are, then there's every chance that they'll swarm at some point? Actually I've just made myself wonder about everything I've...

Of course! :hairpull:

Great, cheers - I'd pretty much decided that I'd take a 'risk' and have a look in a few* days, this would be late in the day and therefore everyone including the newly hatched queen (if she has hatched) should be at home. *Why 5 days and not 4 or 6 for example? We're looking for emergency QC so...

I'll make do with the one I've just transferred!

OK, mid manipulation (quite a stressful one) it dawned on me that my great plan wasn't so great. Essentially I wanted to add a sealed QC to a hive which is producing queen cells in an effort to avoid swarming. Process was as follows: 1. Locate queen in hive 1 and put her, some bees and some...

I'll reply to your post in full later but I have to say that despite your help and some very useful information, your post comes across as condescending (and is wrong / contains assumptions).

I'd like to go into winter with 3 colonies and fingers crossed for a good spring and no swarms next year and I can actually get a decent amount of honey. Looks like I'm on for a small but first crop of honey this year - have had a taste and it's amazing! They have a laying queen (I hope) right...

I'm being very black and white here (as is often th in the nuc. My query (mentioned in my reply to you) still stands: what about the void and that being 'discovered'? Also, does a swarm not just want some time to settle, surely shifting them around makes them think they've found a pretty...

Really good post - lots to think about and much appreciated. Thank you!