Advice for a (fairly) newbie!

[thatcryptochick]

Apologies in advance for a somewhat lengthy post.
On 25th April I took delivery of a 6 frame over-wintered nuc.
All appeared to be going well until 27th May. I had spotted around four queen cells, plenty or stores but no eggs or larvae. After posting for advice on my local beekeeping group, I was advised that these were likely supercedure cells and to leave them where they were.
I returned the next afternoon to find the hive swarming and despite my best efforts, I was unable to catch them.
I was then advised to knock down all remaining queen cells and re-queen the hive.
I re-queened, with a mated queen, on 8th June, however after an inspection today, there are no eggs or larvae and the new queen is nowhere to be seen.
Beekeeping has always been a long held dream of mine after my late father kept bees when I was a child but despite doing an online course, being a member of my local beekeepers association and owning and having read, goodness knows how many bee books, I cant help but feel that I'm doing particularly well.
Any advice would be very, very much appreciated.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Unfortunately your local beekeeping group gave you absolutely terrible advice on the two occasions.
They've basically helped you to trash your colony
any more than one queen cell in a colony - assume they're going to swarm
Only one queen cell (regardless of where), assume they may swarm
Once they did, you should have reduced the colony to one queen cell and leave them raise a new queen, but in your case, it looks like they had swarmed before you sook the initial advice
at this point I'm afraid, only a complete imbecile would have advised you to knock down all the QCs and put a new queen in.
Exactly how did you introduce the new queen?
Your choices now are:
Beg a frame of eggs and very young larvae, put that 'test frame' in your hive and hope they make emergency Queen cells and raise a new queen (time is against you now)
or try and introduce another bought in mated queen.
Of course, you may have missed a QC when you, on other's advice tore all the QCs down so you may have a virgin queen running around there which is why the queen introduction failed.

Unfortunately you are never going to learn much about how to keep bees from an online course
And the same goes for some books.

 

[enrico]

The above post is spot on. You have been given such bad advice! I suggest one of these informants gives you a fame of eggs and an apology! Welcome to the site. I would think you might like to ask us next time! Sorry your bees are in a state.hope it works out

 

[Beedogg]

I am also a newcomer to beekeeping, this is my first full season. What I've learned so far is that not all advice is good advice and that you need also to use your best judgement and common sense. That's not much help, I accept. But quite often the online advice and indeed the books give contrary direction. I find it often helps to sit back and review what I've heard or have read against what I know or what is logical.

That said, I've discovered to my delight two things:
Firstly, there are some very helpful people on this forum who know a helluvalot more about bees than I do, and who's advice is really useful. You know who you are....
Secondly, in all but the most catastrophic circumstances I've realised that sometimes the best thing is not to rush to judgement and is often to leave the bees to sort themselves out.

Good luck, and welcome

 

[thatcryptochick]

Unfortunately your local beekeeping group gave you absolutely terrible advice on the two occasions.
They've basically helped you to trash your colony
any more than one queen cell in a colony - assume they're going to swarm
Only one queen cell (regardless of where), assume they may swarm
Once they did, you should have reduced the colony to one queen cell and leave them raise a new queen, but in your case, it looks like they had swarmed before you sook the initial advice
at this point I'm afraid, only a complete imbecile would have advised you to knock down all the QCs and put a new queen in.
Exactly how did you introduce the new queen?
Your choices now are:
Beg a frame of eggs and very young larvae, put that 'test frame' in your hive and hope they make emergency Queen cells and raise a new queen (time is against you now)
or try and introduce another bought in mated queen.
Of course, you may have missed a QC when you, on other's advice tore all the QCs down so you may have a virgin queen running around there which is why the queen introduction failed.

Unfortunately you are never going to learn much about how to keep bees from an online course
And the same goes for some books.

Thank you for your reply.
I’m absolutely devastated to hear that.
In good faith, and as advised, I joined the local beekeepers group and assumed that the advice given, would be helpful.
I introduced the queen in her cage, left for 3 days and then removed the tab to enable the bees to let her out after eating the fondant. On initial introduction the bees were not aggressive to the queen in the cage.
I’m wondering now whether to buy another nuc for my second, currently empty hive and another queen for my queen less colony. That way I can take some larvae/eggs from that and put it in with the new queen? Or would that weaken the nuc too much?
An online course wasn’t my first choice, however, my son is autistic so attending an in-person course wasn’t an option for me.

 

[thatcryptochick]

The above post is spot on. You have been given such bad advice! I suggest one of these informants gives you a fame of eggs and an apology! Welcome to the site. I would think you might like to ask us next time! Sorry your bees are in a state.hope it works out

Thank you!
I will definitely be asking questions here from now on…if I’ve any bees!

 

[enrico]

Thank you!
I will definitely be asking questions here from now on…if I’ve any bees!

I wouldn't be too hasty. Give the queen that you put in there another week but put a frame of eggs in there too. If they make queen cells from the eggs you can bet your queen has failed but if they make none she just might be a slow starter! Where are you based?

 

[thatcryptochick]

I wouldn't be too hasty. Give the queen that you put in there another week but put a frame of eggs in there too. If they make queen cells from the eggs you can bet your queen has failed but if they make none she just might be a slow starter! Where are you based?

Thank you for your reply.
I’m in North Yorkshire and quite frankly, getting help/advice from my local group has been akin to getting blood from a stone so I’m not too sure asking for a frame would be particularly fruitful.

 

[E&MBees]

Thank you for your reply.
I’m in North Yorkshire and quite frankly, getting help/advice from my local group has been akin to getting blood from a stone so I’m not too sure asking for a frame would be particularly fruitful.

There might be a few forum members that are local to you that might be able to help.

 

[The Poot]

Apologies in advance for a somewhat lengthy post.
On 25th April I took delivery of a 6 frame over-wintered nuc.
All appeared to be going well until 27th May. I had spotted around four queen cells, plenty or stores but no eggs or larvae. After posting for advice on my local beekeeping group, I was advised that these were likely supercedure cells and to leave them where they were.
I returned the next afternoon to find the hive swarming and despite my best efforts, I was unable to catch them.
I was then advised to knock down all remaining queen cells and re-queen the hive.
I re-queened, with a mated queen, on 8th June, however after an inspection today, there are no eggs or larvae and the new queen is nowhere to be seen.
Beekeeping has always been a long held dream of mine after my late father kept bees when I was a child but despite doing an online course, being a member of my local beekeepers association and owning and having read, goodness knows how many bee books, I cant help but feel that I'm doing particularly well.
Any advice would be very, very much appreciated.

That’s really sad, but try not to lose heart.
Its been a very swarmy season so far, so try ringing around to see if anyone has a “swarm too many” to make available. You might be lucky.
If you let us know your location there may be a kind soul on here who might be able to help you.

 

[enrico]

Thank you for your reply.
I’m in North Yorkshire and quite frankly, getting help/advice from my local group has been akin to getting blood from a stone so I’m not too sure asking for a frame would be particularly fruitful.

Am too far away! But..... Just to show you are far from alone by making errors feel free to read about my early errors and get a few tips. If you click on the blog page and then on the authors and then on my icon you may get a few giggles!

 

[thatcryptochick]

That’s really sad, but try not to lose heart.
Its been a very swarmy season so far, so try ringing around to see if anyone has a “swarm too many” to make available. You might be lucky.
If you let us know your location there may be a kind soul on here who might be able to help you.

Thank you for your kind words.
I’m in North Yorkshire, York to be exact, if anyone can help me out, I would be exceptionally grateful

 

[thatcryptochick]

Am too far away! But..... Just to show you are far from alone by making errors feel free to read about my early errors and get a few tips. If you click on the blog page and then on the authors and then on my icon you may get a few giggles!

Thank you! I’ll have a look this evening!

 

[thatcryptochick]

There might be a few forum members that are local to you that might be able to help.

That would be fantastic if someone could help. I’m in York if anyone is out there?

 

[pargyle]

Thank you for your reply.
I’m in North Yorkshire and quite frankly, getting help/advice from my local group has been akin to getting blood from a stone so I’m not too sure asking for a frame would be particularly fruitful.

Just better add ... don't beat yourself up about it .. beekeeping in the first couple of years (and more so in the last couple of years !) is a pretty steep learning curve. You actually did the right thing ... before diving in you asked for advice. Sadly, as I've found on a number of occasions there are some people who have been keeping bees for a long time and who are prepared to offer 'advice' that would be better off not offering any advice.

The advice you have got on here is spot on, there's very little in beekeeping that can't be put right and there are some very generous people on here who may well help - with the number of swarms that have been about this year there may be someone combining a colony with a queen they don't need which would, at least, cost you a bit less than having to buy one in.

Stick with it ... it does get better - or so I've been told - I'm 10 years in and I sometimes wonder !

 

[thatcryptochick]

So…I just spoke to the supplier I bought the mated Queen from and was advised that there may have been a virgin queen in the hive when I introduced the mated queen.
He asked me to check the hive again on Friday and let him know the situation.
When I did the inspection yesterday, I didn’t see any queens and when I introduced the mated queen in the cage 10 days ago, there was no hostility shown towards her.
I’m very conscious that time is ticking on.

 

[thatcryptochick]

Just better add ... don't beat yourself up about it .. beekeeping in the first couple of years (and more so in the last couple of years !) is a pretty steep learning curve. You actually did the right thing ... before diving in you asked for advice. Sadly, as I've found on a number of occasions there are some people who have been keeping bees for a long time and who are prepared to offer 'advice' that would be better off not offering any advice.

The advice you have got on here is spot on, there's very little in beekeeping that can't be put right and there are some very generous people on here who may well help - with the number of swarms that have been about this year there may be someone combining a colony with a queen they don't need which would, at least, cost you a bit less than having to buy one in.

Stick with it ... it does get better - or so I've been told - I'm 10 years in and I sometimes wonder !

Thank you for your kind words.
I feel that many beekeepers do things in different ways, there are so many variables like pollen flow, weather, temperature etc and “one size does not fit all”.
Again, if anyone near York could spare a frame, I’d be very grateful.

 

[ericbeaumont]

buy another nuc for my second, currently empty hive and another queen for my queen less colony. That way I can take some larvae/eggs from that and put it in with the new queen?

Good thinking.

getting help/advice from my local group has been akin to getting blood from a stone

The truth is that the standard of UK hobby beekeeping is very low and BKAs are variable: those in charge may have kept bees badly for 20 years but are usually pleased to give advice freely.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Thank you for your kind words.
I’m in North Yorkshire, York to be exact, if anyone can help me out, I would be exceptionally grateful

If you're in York I'm quite ( nay very ) surprised you had a poor response from local BKAs. There are some highly skilled beekeepers in York BKA based at the Murton museum of farming plus there is Barkston Ash BKA based near Church Fenton again with some highly skilled keepers. Which BKA did you actually make contact with? I'm sure the better beekeepers in whichever BKA it was will be devastated to hear what has befallen you.

 

[thatcryptochick]

If you're in York I'm quite ( nay very ) surprised you had a poor response from local BKAs. There are some highly skilled beekeepers in York BKA based at the Murton museum of farming plus there is Barkston Ash BKA based near Church Fenton again with some highly skilled keepers. Which BKA did you actually make contact with?

John
Without wishing to offend anyone or speak ill of someone on a public board, I will respond to your message with a private reply, if that’s ok with you.