advice needed

[smudger]

My bees swarmed last thursday and i went through the hive looking for a queen but there was not one. I then got rid of the remaining queen cells except the largest one. Today I looked in on them and there was more sealed queen cells, and the queen cell I left from last week looked like the queen had hatched as the end looked like it was on a hinge and it was open.
Today I got rid of more queen cells and left the biggest one. There seemed to be plenty of bees and it doesnt look like more left with a swarm as it looks like there is the same amount of bees as last week.
I was just wondering, could the queen cell I left last week have been empty or could the queen have hatched out ok and gone on her mating flight.
Not sure where to go from here ,i am hoping what ive done up to now is correct. Any advice on what to do next would be appreciated

 

[Poly Hive]

Ooooooops.

Mistake one let them swarm.

Mistake 2 leave the oldest cell.

Mistake three repeat 2.

Always leave the youngest cell.

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

Not the best but likely good enough.

There would not be a queen if they had already swarmed and it is less than a week since.

Leaving one capped queen cell is a bit of a lottery - it could be a dud! A better way is to remove the extras just before emergence when you can see the good queen cells are 'ripe'.

Them building more queen cells is their way to put your error right!

Little point in leaving more queen cells if the first has emerged (hinged capping obvious) and they could throw a cast swarm.

'Same amount of bees as last week' That can be a little misleading. There should be another week's worth of emerged brood in there!

Doubtful the queen has gone on her mating flights just yet. she needs to mature for a few days first and then the weather needs to be conducive.

Advice on what to do now - leave them alone for two or three weeks (depending on the weather, quite a bit), so she can get mated and start to lay.

Do a varroa check and decide if you need to treat in the period while the colony only has open brood.

RAB

 

[smudger]

Thanks Rab, just to check,when you say my error do you mean getting rid of queen cells too early and not waiting to check that they are ripe ?
What does a ripe queen cell look like ?
I take it I should go back in the hive and get rid of the remaining queen cell.
Aaron

 

[smudger]

Poly Hive seeing as im only in my second year keeping bees it obvious im not as knowledgable as others and a lot of us on here are still learning and going to make mistakes.
Im not the first bee keeper to have bees swarm and i wont be the last so i would appreciate helpful or constructive comments as opposed to sarcasm.

 

[Andre cardona]

nice one smudger

 

[plumberman]

Poly Hive seeing as im only in my second year keeping bees it obvious im not as knowledgable as others and a lot of us on here are still learning and going to make mistakes.
Im not the first bee keeper to have bees swarm and i wont be the last so i would appreciate helpful or constructive comments as opposed to sarcasm.

Smudger - make sure you read the sticky at the top of this section " asking for advice". My advice is not to take it personally.......

 

[drstitson]

PH wasn't being sarcastic he was just emphasising succinctly what had been done wrong to make the learning exercise clear.

if it were me, with only one colony i would grasp the opportunity presented: i would find the new queen (likely to be on "home" frame) and making sure i didn't take her, make up a nuc with a couple of frames of brood, bees and stores along with two decent looking queen cells.

 

[oliver90owner]

Aaron,

I agree with PH, your initial mistake was not checking often enough, or leaving active queen cells at the inspection. You will learn.

PH leaves an open cell so he can be sure the cell is not empty. I gave an alternative for your particular scenario (queen already gone) but would likely do as PH.

You were almost asking if what you had done was correct, after all!

Other 'errors' might be starting with only the one colony, assuming biggest is best, looking for a queen immediately after swarming, not studying the life cycle of the honey bee super-organism (over the winter months or before embarking on beekeeping as a hobby), not having a good reference book to hand. Some of this is rather basic to the art/craft of beekeping and really ought to be known before getting your first bees.

'Ripe' queen cells darken around the tip. This is easily spotted when comparing good with dud, but the beek needs to know when to look for it (life-cycle references).

Us telling you all about it now, may be OK for the future, but could not assist 'after the event'. Your problems/errors have arisen because of your lack of basic knowledge on the subject. Poly Hive is astute enough to recognise that, and his succint reply has demonstrated the point more clearly, now that you have 'taken the bait'.

Now, I am thinking you have not been on a beekeeping course, have not read up on the subject and do not have a mentor and do not belong to your local BKA - in other words, you are going it alone without a really decent grounding of the subject? I might guess that you are a younger generation beek, but there may be other reasons for not doing the groundwork. There are other clues in your post and you seem to be well able to do this necessary reading.

Just 'hoping' is not the best method of animal husbandry - OK, I know it may well have been a compositional remark - but it can be construed as 'I am flying in the dark', which is not good enough.

I am almost in Northants. Where are you?

Regards, RAB

 

[smudger]

Hi Rab

I think the reason I missed the first queen cells was rushing my weekly inspection and not seeing queen cups or the start of the queen cells. Then my next weekly inspection after that was a couple of days late due to bad weather and that was when I missed the sealed queen cells.
So ive learnt from my mistake and wont make them again.
I looked in my books at what to do next after I missed the swarm and it said to remove all but the biggest queen cell, it did not mention about removing the queen cells too early or waiting till they were ripe.
I have done a beekeeping course last year and on that there was no mention of removing queen cells too early and waiting for ripe queen cells. We were told if we found queen cells not to panic and look in our books at what to do next, so thats what I did.
I am a member of the local beekeeping association but cant make the meetings very often due to work commitments, so I know i am missing out on a valuable and helpful resource. I do not have a mentor so when there is something i am not sure about I look on this forum or in books for guidance which I thought helped but as people have mentioned on here the bees do not read the books or look on this forum to see what they should be doing.
I live near Wellingborough, where are you ?

Regards Aaron

 

[Poly Hive]

So are you now happier Smudger or/and do you possibly want to withdraw your comment? Or will I just put you on ignore and move on?

PH

 

[Winker]

So are you now happier Smudger or/and do you possibly want to withdraw your comment? Or will I just put you on ignore and move on?

PH

Fish supper fae Bervie chippy?

 

[Poly Hive]

Crikey no the chippe on stoney beach front is miles better.

PH

 

[smudger]

Yeah im happier PH, I get your point and I have learnt from it which is the main thing, i will try and not take comments to heart then next time
Regards
Aaron

 

[Easy Beesy]

hi smudger
what books are you reading? could we recommend Hooper, Ron Brown or Clive de Bruyn.

 

[oliver90owner]

There is a PM for you.

 

[smudger]

Hi, I have got "bees at the bottom of the garden'' and ''collins beekeepers bible'' il check those books out thanks

Aaron

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It's easy to take offence but it takes some guts to admit a mistake - well done smudger - as I've found out you will learn a lot off this forum (even though some of the advice might hurt at first!!)