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Almost certain a colony is Q'less. I would normally use a test frame but the time of year means no obvious frames to use. I could do it but the loss of a frame now would seem a greater theft than earlier in the year. How best then to be sure a colony is queenless before uniting?

... they hadn't dealt with them, but I have now, thanks.

Thanks, will go through tomorrow and make sure there are no q cells left unopened.

Thanks all. Maybe I'll just let the bees sort it out now. If I have removed the only VQ (unlikely) some uniting needs to happen before too long anyway.

Thanks Hemo. I went in this morning and caught a VQ. Found 2 Q cells that I'd missed yesterday and so didn't feel any risk of leaving them q'less I closed up. The VQ I caught is now in another colony in a queen intro cage bunged with fondant. I don't have a spare brood box. Could use empty...

Yesterday at 3pm I inspected a colony (brood and a half layout) that I'd left too long. The first sign of things to come was a VQ piping, which I put into a Q clip. I then saw another Q cell that, when I touched it with the hive tool, a Q emerged. Later, another Q, also piping, was spotted in...

Great to hear, thanks to you both.

To change a Queen I'd added a frame from another hive with a fine looking QC on it. Some days after it would have/should have emerged I had a quick peep to check it hadn't been torn down. The cell was intact and looked fine, the cap removed, not present but removed, rough edges around the...

That may be an alder beetle. Trout love'em. Alder Leaf Beetle | NatureSpot

Thanks all for your very helpful thoughts. I probably have erred on the over generous side. I think I'll remove the remaining fondant and keep an eye on the weight. It's a balmy 9 degrees today so a good day to open up briefly.

I put 12.5kg of fondant, in 2 successive blocks of 6.25kg directly on top of a Q excluder, on the top bars of national brood frames in early and late Oct. The second block is almost all gone but there's still about 1kg left of v hard fondant, the cluster is directly under the blue wrapper and...

Bluetractorman here, aka Richard Elliott. Just started beekeeping this year. I joined the Chichester beekeeping course which had to be stopped after a few sessions. Undeterred I've gone ahead. Was lucky enough to get an over-wintered nuc which last week I transferred to a hive. All seems...