Advice Please

[fisherman 451]

Came through my first winter well, on inspection yesterday there were lots of bees and BIAS, didn't manage to spot queenie though. I put a super on last week as the girls seemed very busy, there were a couple of frames in the brood box that were still full of stores and capped, I was hoping that they might move that up into the super, but that doesn't seemed to have happened, so should I remove those frames and replace them with foundation to make more room in the brood box or will the girls sort it out themselves? Hope this make sense.

 

[alfazer]

My thoughts at this time of year would be to remove one of the frames of stores to create more room for brood and pollen. In my case personally, those frames of stores probably came from feeding sugar syrup (with Hivealive) in the autumn and I wouldn't want them moving that up into a super that I would be harvesting for honey.
Id just leave the super where it is and hope they moved up in the next week or so. Some insulation on top the crown board will help keep it warm and more inviting.

 

[enrico]

Presuming the super is drawn comb and that there is still laying room in the bb I would leave it. They will move it if they need to
E

 

[JWF]

You could always score the cappings which may encourage them to shift the honey up into the super.

As Enrico says, leave it in place unless they're short of laying room in the brood box.

 

[fisherman 451]

Thanks for the replies, I will keep a close eye on what happens in the next week, I was inclined to leave it just wanted a few other views on it, will try scoring the cappings to see if that encourages the girls to move it.

 

[Dadnlad]

They might just be eating it over the next couple of weeks anyway given the chilly forecast

 

[seaknight]

I've been finding and marking the queens the last few days on my first inspection of the tear, yesterday I searched in vain in the brood box for her, got to the second to last frame, still nothing, then out of the corner of my eye, I could see her running away from me on the other side of the frame! She dropped off the frame into the palm of my hand, quickly got her into the one handed queen catcher, a dot of yellow paint - sorted! Finding the queen is the hard bit, I still haven't clipped one yet, but am going to try, since it will prevent the loss of a swarm. I was against clipping, believing it to be an antiquated system, but am convinced to try it since I lost a lot of swarms and honey last year. That's my two pence worth anyway.

 

[Uncle Betty]

I've been finding and marking the queens the last few days on my first inspection of the tear, yesterday I searched in vain in the brood box for her, got to the second to last frame, still nothing, then out of the corner of my eye, I could see her running away from me on the other side of the frame! She dropped off the frame into the palm of my hand, quickly got her into the one handed queen catcher, a dot of yellow paint - sorted! Finding the queen is the hard bit, I still haven't clipped one yet, but am going to try, since it will prevent the loss of a swarm. I was against clipping, believing it to be an antiquated system, but am convinced to try it since I lost a lot of swarms and honey last year. That's my two pence worth anyway.

Well, it gives you longer between inspections, until queen cells appear.

Secondly it means that if your colony does swarm, you won't lose your bees/foraging force (even if you lose the queen). She can't fly and without her they'll return to base.

If they then make emergency queen cells on eg two-day old larvae, then you have only a few days before those are capped and...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well, it gives you longer between inspections, until queen cells appear.

Secondly it means that if your colony does swarm, you won't lose your bees/foraging force (even if you lose the queen). She can't fly and without her they'll return to base.

If they then make emergency queen cells on eg two-day old larvae, then you have only a few days before those are capped and...

A swarming colony already has swarm cells. They are not going to make emergency cells when they lose the queen. They will just swarm with the first available virgin emerging

 

[pargyle]

A swarming colony already has swarm cells. They are not going to make emergency cells when they lose the queen. They will just swarm with the first available virgin emerging

Yep ... clipping queens only buys you a very small amount of time to act - it will not prevent them swarming. I don't clip as if you are up together with your inspection routine then you should be seeing the signs of swarm preparation and be in time to do something about it.

I'm not sufficiently pompous to suggest I've always got it right .. miss a queen cell and you are in trouble ... any beekeeper who tells you they've never lost a swarm is telling you porky pies or they just have not noticed ! I've lost a few but I don't think clipping my queens would have assisted my incompetence ...

 

[madasafish]

I've been finding and marking the queens the last few days on my first inspection of the tear, yesterday I searched in vain in the brood box for her, got to the second to last frame, still nothing, then out of the corner of my eye, I could see her running away from me on the other side of the frame! She dropped off the frame into the palm of my hand, quickly got her into the one handed queen catcher, a dot of yellow paint - sorted! Finding the queen is the hard bit, I still haven't clipped one yet, but am going to try, since it will prevent the loss of a swarm. I was against clipping, believing it to be an antiquated system, but am convinced to try it since I lost a lot of swarms and honey last year. That's my two pence worth anyway.

I loather runny bees and queens . I requeen for that alone.

 

[Uncle Betty]

A swarming colony already has swarm cells. They are not going to make emergency cells when they lose the queen. They will just swarm with the first available virgin emerging

Absolutely.

Probably had the WingCo's thread in my mind.

Thanks.