Advice needed please

[daniellejeynes]

sounds like both hives are at risk - did you leave any queen cells in the parent hive?

how much brood have you had at the zenith of the parent hive? and how many bees.

i think you've lost a swarm and now have:

queenless parent hive
nuc with virgin awaiting mating.

alternatively are you sure the QCs in blog are queen cells? you may have some new cells made when you made up a queenless nuc - they would be due to hatch now hence the piping.

No I took all qc out. Six frames at zenith aprox 30,000 bees. I'm not sure they did have lava in the cells so I took it as they were qc. I'm going to do an inspection in half hour I will take photos and put them on my blog. Thanks for the response, helpful to discuss. how long should a capped qc take to emerge from the day of capping? to be honest it looks as tho it has been capped over? and this noise is so bizarre like I have said it sounds for 3 seconds the same pitch, stops then repeats this goes on nearly all day?

 

[greatbritishhoney]

All good advice so far Danielle, but remember that if you have a virgin in there, she is going to be disturbed by a lot of opening of the hive. This could greatly reduce her chance of getting out to mate.
If I were you I'd get my mentor round, have a definitive look at what is going on.

 

[daniellejeynes]

All good advice so far Danielle, but remember that if you have a virgin in there, she is going to be disturbed by a lot of opening of the hive. This could greatly reduce her chance of getting out to mate.
If I were you I'd get my mentor round, have a definitive look at what is going on.[/QUOTE

All have been very helpful. I do have a mentor but he is often busy. His last suggestion was to reunite the two colony's. but yes you are right I don't like disturbing the bees the saying "best left be" literally keeps in my mind. I do feel responsible for splitting the colony in the first place. Would you also do as he suggests?

Thank you
Danielle

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Personally, yes, I would unite them. That would be my first step as it sounds like both colonies may be too weak to make it through winter in their current condition.
But, you do need to ascertain whether you've got a virgin in there or not. If you introduce a bought-in mated queen when there is a virgin in the colony you are likely to end up with a fight which could damage or kill both queens.

I would unite, leave it a week or so, then have a thorough check through the hive looking for signs of the queen (either the queen herself or eggs).

 

[daniellejeynes]

Fantastic news, I did an inspection yesterday and to my surprise, I have a queen again in my main hive. In previous checks she had seemingly disappeared, no queen no eggs and only old brood. As mentioned I was told to start a nuc as there were qc in the hive. so I did. The nuc is another story... I am not sure if there is a virgin queen present so I am not going to reunite until I am sure that there is not. I am very grateful of all the advice given.
Im sure we will chat again soon.
Danielle