- Joined
- Feb 15, 2015
- Messages
- 3,457
- Reaction score
- 4,096
- Location
- Dorset
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- Five
June 14th did AS of a double brood colony with three supers, by nuc ing the queen and leaving one open queen cell.
It is my biggest colony in bee numbers by far - a very prolific queen. I added a fourth super at the end of June.
I’ve checked supers since and they were filling and emptying as the weather dictated and the bees were very active when they could be.
I intended to check for evidence of a queen around the 12th/ 14th of July but poor mating weather made me delay until today.
Today, removed supers - all very heavy to check the brood area for queenie.
No evidence as every single frame was full of honey! I was considering what to do while cleaning off loads of brace comb from the QX - and found a small amount of small larvae on the top of the QX. It seems queenie has mated, returned and squeezed through the QX to find a few free cells in the super I had added.
So, I gave them an additional brood box of foundation, removed the QX and checked the supers for brood and only found one had some. I fitted that above the empty brood box with a filled super above, then a clearer board, then the two final supers.
Tomorrow I hope to find the supers cleared. I will fit a drawn super if I’m able to take them, then the queen will, I hope be encouraged to find laying space in the new brood box and the bees can move the lower brood box honey up.
What could possibly go wrong?
It is my biggest colony in bee numbers by far - a very prolific queen. I added a fourth super at the end of June.
I’ve checked supers since and they were filling and emptying as the weather dictated and the bees were very active when they could be.
I intended to check for evidence of a queen around the 12th/ 14th of July but poor mating weather made me delay until today.
Today, removed supers - all very heavy to check the brood area for queenie.
No evidence as every single frame was full of honey! I was considering what to do while cleaning off loads of brace comb from the QX - and found a small amount of small larvae on the top of the QX. It seems queenie has mated, returned and squeezed through the QX to find a few free cells in the super I had added.
So, I gave them an additional brood box of foundation, removed the QX and checked the supers for brood and only found one had some. I fitted that above the empty brood box with a filled super above, then a clearer board, then the two final supers.
Tomorrow I hope to find the supers cleared. I will fit a drawn super if I’m able to take them, then the queen will, I hope be encouraged to find laying space in the new brood box and the bees can move the lower brood box honey up.
What could possibly go wrong?