Recent content by Rover Girl

Took the supers off one hive yesterday - one frame had a bit of drone brood, which had me puzzled - and at the end found a small queen walking around the table I had been using as the clearing area. The brood box has a queen and she's laying away. Could a small queen squeeze up through the...

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Thanks Thank you all for good and various advice. I am keen to experiment and learn and will try to overwinter at least one of them taking on board what has been said. I will build them up with more bees from busy hives. Many thanks

Thinking about overwintering a couple of wooden nucs; what is the optimum amount of bees and stores i should have. I have a couple of nucs with laying queens at the moment; one with around a seam and a half of bees and the other other with barely a seam.

Busy year - both hives demareed, one twice. Early this am our prolific queen (the 2 x demareed) was off - but only got as far as the entrance - clipped wandering around on the ground...and chickens still in their coop! It's under control this year at least! Question really is about the...

We had this problem last year and got a really good method at Gormanstown. Take out 4 frames and put in a nuc to one side. Pair up the remaining 8 frames (2 x 4) and spread the pairs across the brood box. Go and have a cup of tea. Come back 30 mins later. Check the pairs of frames...

We had this last year, and got a method when at Gormanstown, that has worked every time. Take 4 frames out of the brood box, checking there is no queen on them as you go.Put them in a nuc to one side. Then pair up the other frames - ie 4 x 2 frames, spacing them out over the brood box. Go...

A fellow beekeeper had a drone laying queen, which was destroyed. A new marked and clipped queen was put in. Yesterday (a week later) we discovered another queen in there - not clipped or marked and no sign of the marked queen. The thought is that the new marked queen was killed by the...

Thanks for all the diverse thoughts, all really helpful - now pouring with rain and I've stopped thinking about it until after the coming cold snap. I'll likely super early rather than later, as I'm much more aware of the need for space after last year's swarm!! It's all part of learning...

It's a lovely day in Dublin and the bees in both hives very busy - to super or to wait? Thoughts please!

Just thought I'd let you know, I re-queened on 10th July and now have BIAS on 3 frames, so if this weather keeps up Hive No 1 might be ok! Hive No 2 now has BIAS across 7 frames, and although a bit of a mess with fused stores on a few frames is looking very happy. :thanks:

Thanks for all the help - there is Brood in hive 2 (the cast of 18th June) - hooray! Nothing in hive one though, so looking to re-queen that, or maybe unite the 2?

Thanks all - I think I'll be patient, but will try to get a frame of brood to test. Such a lot of learning to do!!

My hive swarmed 4 weeks ago today. I missed one QC as we had a cast too (which we managed to collect). I inspected 7 days ago when and there were no eggs or larvae. I left it a week till today, hoping that we would find BIAS - they have been bringing pollen in... But disappointingly...

Hi Just as a learner any thoughts on my first swarming experiences would be appreciated! Swarm 2nd June - lost! 5th June - Opened up and broke down all but one QC 9th June checked and only saw the one big QC....which should have hatched 10th June? Hoped all would be well and she would make...