bjosephd
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2014
- Messages
- 1,129
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- North Somerset
- Hive Type
- Langstroth
- Number of Hives
- 3
Hey all...
Quick background.
15 days ago swarm scouted and moved into empty hive.
Somehow queen got injured and died out front of hive 2 days later without laying.
Frame of brood and a few queen cells (1 or 2 sealed) put in from local beek.
Queenless roaring ceased.
Hoping for a queen to emerge, mate, and get laying.
Fed for a short while with thick syrup.
Since then........
Bees very busy, foraging, bringing in pollen, calm and seemingly happy.
One queen with undeveloped or deformed wings ejected & dead.
A handful of drones have clearly been booted out and died out front (one or two with crappy wings), they often seem too fat and drunk to fly, although have seen the odd flying drone orienting.
A couple of workers with crappy wings dead out front too.
Have not inspected for nearly 2 weeks as thought best to leave hive to establish and queens to fight it out and virgin to get out and mate.
Today a half developed white bee ejected out front... & more dead/dying drones.
Spotted 1 red varroa on the floor outside the hive (it's paving out the front, so it's easy to spot what comes out the hive).
And also THINK I can occasionally hear tooting/piping/quacking when I put my ear to the hive (not sure of the difference)... but it certainly sounds like rhythmic pulses of a short buzzy beep beep beep beeping. Does that mean a Q vs Q battle royale is about to commence?!
Was planning on leaving them alone until next week but now thinking tomorrow is best weather to make inspection before wind, rain, and schedule starts to make things difficult.
I am however worried that it might be a good day for a virgin to get out and mate, and messing with a hive on such a day maybe not the best idea? Particularly if there are queens about to fight it out I wonder if opening is also a bad idea.
All thoughts greatly appreciated.
What am I looking for...?
Eggs (that would be nice, and very efficient if queen is a randy floozy)
Chalk brood? (white bee maybe suggests this, although bee is just white, not chalky or mummified)
Varroa (this seems likely as it seems ALL hives have these little buggers, maybe came with frame of brood from local beek)
I am not after a honey crop this year, gonna leave the honey to the bees as good winter feed... so is there an advisable 'summer' (summer?!) varroa treatment you would suggest?
Inspection tray has been in since bees arrived, so I will check it tomorrow also. (badly placed hive at the mo, so tray is tricky to remove without spinning the hive 90 degrees).
Or do I just leave it all well alone for another week or two, and be patient as there's essentially nothing I can actually do at the moment other than cause much un-needed disturbance in a colony and queen trying to get their **** sorted?
Quick background.
15 days ago swarm scouted and moved into empty hive.
Somehow queen got injured and died out front of hive 2 days later without laying.
Frame of brood and a few queen cells (1 or 2 sealed) put in from local beek.
Queenless roaring ceased.
Hoping for a queen to emerge, mate, and get laying.
Fed for a short while with thick syrup.
Since then........
Bees very busy, foraging, bringing in pollen, calm and seemingly happy.
One queen with undeveloped or deformed wings ejected & dead.
A handful of drones have clearly been booted out and died out front (one or two with crappy wings), they often seem too fat and drunk to fly, although have seen the odd flying drone orienting.
A couple of workers with crappy wings dead out front too.
Have not inspected for nearly 2 weeks as thought best to leave hive to establish and queens to fight it out and virgin to get out and mate.
Today a half developed white bee ejected out front... & more dead/dying drones.
Spotted 1 red varroa on the floor outside the hive (it's paving out the front, so it's easy to spot what comes out the hive).
And also THINK I can occasionally hear tooting/piping/quacking when I put my ear to the hive (not sure of the difference)... but it certainly sounds like rhythmic pulses of a short buzzy beep beep beep beeping. Does that mean a Q vs Q battle royale is about to commence?!
Was planning on leaving them alone until next week but now thinking tomorrow is best weather to make inspection before wind, rain, and schedule starts to make things difficult.
I am however worried that it might be a good day for a virgin to get out and mate, and messing with a hive on such a day maybe not the best idea? Particularly if there are queens about to fight it out I wonder if opening is also a bad idea.
All thoughts greatly appreciated.
What am I looking for...?
Eggs (that would be nice, and very efficient if queen is a randy floozy)
Chalk brood? (white bee maybe suggests this, although bee is just white, not chalky or mummified)
Varroa (this seems likely as it seems ALL hives have these little buggers, maybe came with frame of brood from local beek)
I am not after a honey crop this year, gonna leave the honey to the bees as good winter feed... so is there an advisable 'summer' (summer?!) varroa treatment you would suggest?
Inspection tray has been in since bees arrived, so I will check it tomorrow also. (badly placed hive at the mo, so tray is tricky to remove without spinning the hive 90 degrees).
Or do I just leave it all well alone for another week or two, and be patient as there's essentially nothing I can actually do at the moment other than cause much un-needed disturbance in a colony and queen trying to get their **** sorted?
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