- Joined
- Feb 24, 2011
- Messages
- 1,562
- Reaction score
- 26
- Location
- near King's Lynn
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 50+. Double Std National & 14x12
Hi, as a newbee with 2 colonies this year I have been ticking along nicely on my steep learing curve, books, mentors and the bees have taught me alot, not to mention you guys on here advising others on problems that are coming my way soon........... well they have arrived.
Put the kettle on its a long one..............
2 hives, both Nationals, 2 colonies from local beekeepers, both unmarked and unclipped 2010 queens.
Hive one is just on std brood with a super added couple of weeks back and now 3 frames filled & capped and starting to draw comb on the others, 2nd super any day me thinks. I call this my nice little hive and its the one I inspect first as it seems fairly straight forward. Checking every Sunday at the moment and seems well at the moment.
Enter hive 2...... this one is a brood & half and as such I have found the inspections more difficult. (Super above brood). Super added a couple of weeks ago and again about 3 frames capped and drawing and filling couple others so another super any day........but being tad more difficult to inspect I had planned to do this one on Easter Monday with fellow Beekeeper who advised me it was too cold and windy at the time and we will do it in the week... yep been colder and blowing all week. Anyway decided it had to be done so set about it on my todd on Friday when others were at church or watching telly. 3 frames into the brood super I found 2 queen cells, next frame 2 more and next frame 1 more but the end was off. Carried on and in total found 7 in total inc the one now vacant. I carried on as wanted to see if I had eggs and young brood and if I could see the queen. Found both but not the queen and decided to shut it up and make a phone call... during reassembly whilst putting the honey super back on there was a queen walking about on her own and being largely ignored by those around.....then she took off did a couple of close circles and i lost sight of her. Not good I thought and walked the 50yds back to the house to make a call. Stoped after about 10 yds to pick up my dropped hive tool and as I stood up right in front of me was a swarm 3ft up an old xmas tree.
Got a box, sheet and board and dropped it in, turned it over on the sheet, wedged up the side and an hour later they were all in. As I watched them all wander about and go into the upturned box I spotted a queen walking about again mostly unnoticed by all around her and she went in too, she was skinny and I thought it may have been the one from earlier.. It was the size of a rugby ball. Later that night after reading the chapter again they walked up the board into my spare hive with 11 frames of foundation for them to work at. I believe this now has my original queen and the new virgin one in it, what should I do ?
Hey there is more... today 2 days later I went back into the hive that had swarmed to tear remove the queen cells bar 1 or 2 (wasnt sure when I went in). Found all 7 from before but now 3 were open ! Checked no eggs and no small brood, plenty capped and quite a few drones (this hive has a super frame in the brood and the drone comb on it had all recently hatched). Removed all queen cells except one biggie right in the middle of the middle frame. Then it happened.......spotted a queen, then another. Now what, they were both being left to wander about unhindered so I guess unmated. I removed the last queen cell and shut the hive up leaving the 2 of them inside.
What should I do next...... will I lose a cast swarm or 2 ?
Oh when I got back to the garage with my tools and bucket of removed comb and cells I had 3 queens walking about which had emerged from some of the cells I had removed, this was about 3 hours ago. They are still there, should I just dispose of them.
What a long post but tried to give plent info so I get a considered answer !
Put the kettle on its a long one..............
2 hives, both Nationals, 2 colonies from local beekeepers, both unmarked and unclipped 2010 queens.
Hive one is just on std brood with a super added couple of weeks back and now 3 frames filled & capped and starting to draw comb on the others, 2nd super any day me thinks. I call this my nice little hive and its the one I inspect first as it seems fairly straight forward. Checking every Sunday at the moment and seems well at the moment.
Enter hive 2...... this one is a brood & half and as such I have found the inspections more difficult. (Super above brood). Super added a couple of weeks ago and again about 3 frames capped and drawing and filling couple others so another super any day........but being tad more difficult to inspect I had planned to do this one on Easter Monday with fellow Beekeeper who advised me it was too cold and windy at the time and we will do it in the week... yep been colder and blowing all week. Anyway decided it had to be done so set about it on my todd on Friday when others were at church or watching telly. 3 frames into the brood super I found 2 queen cells, next frame 2 more and next frame 1 more but the end was off. Carried on and in total found 7 in total inc the one now vacant. I carried on as wanted to see if I had eggs and young brood and if I could see the queen. Found both but not the queen and decided to shut it up and make a phone call... during reassembly whilst putting the honey super back on there was a queen walking about on her own and being largely ignored by those around.....then she took off did a couple of close circles and i lost sight of her. Not good I thought and walked the 50yds back to the house to make a call. Stoped after about 10 yds to pick up my dropped hive tool and as I stood up right in front of me was a swarm 3ft up an old xmas tree.
Got a box, sheet and board and dropped it in, turned it over on the sheet, wedged up the side and an hour later they were all in. As I watched them all wander about and go into the upturned box I spotted a queen walking about again mostly unnoticed by all around her and she went in too, she was skinny and I thought it may have been the one from earlier.. It was the size of a rugby ball. Later that night after reading the chapter again they walked up the board into my spare hive with 11 frames of foundation for them to work at. I believe this now has my original queen and the new virgin one in it, what should I do ?
Hey there is more... today 2 days later I went back into the hive that had swarmed to tear remove the queen cells bar 1 or 2 (wasnt sure when I went in). Found all 7 from before but now 3 were open ! Checked no eggs and no small brood, plenty capped and quite a few drones (this hive has a super frame in the brood and the drone comb on it had all recently hatched). Removed all queen cells except one biggie right in the middle of the middle frame. Then it happened.......spotted a queen, then another. Now what, they were both being left to wander about unhindered so I guess unmated. I removed the last queen cell and shut the hive up leaving the 2 of them inside.
What should I do next...... will I lose a cast swarm or 2 ?
Oh when I got back to the garage with my tools and bucket of removed comb and cells I had 3 queens walking about which had emerged from some of the cells I had removed, this was about 3 hours ago. They are still there, should I just dispose of them.
What a long post but tried to give plent info so I get a considered answer !
