After a Unite....

[JonnyPicklechin]

Introduced NUC with Queen to queenless Single brood via newspaper 2 days ago...

Checked today.....

1. The queen was OK but her entire paint markings had been rubbed off. Could tell she was the same as my wing clipping had been a bit haphazard so she was easy to identify. She did have a decent blue dot just 2 days ago. But completely gone. Not even a mark left and mark had been on there a few weeks...Any one experienced that? I wondered if it was connected to....

2. Notice she was sort of being "friendly balled". Bees were totally surrounding her until they dispersed and she tottered off to another part of the frame and then the same again. Has anyone seen this behaviour before? Maybe all that hugging had rubbed off her markings?

3. I noticed a single charged queen cup. Could have just started in the NUC and I missed it but then again.... But thought I would ask if anyone ever saw some queen making activities just after a unite? I will check back in a couple of days just to check they are not signalling swarming. Would a NUC looking to find room lose the swarm urge after a unite. Or does the new bigger hive now assume the "urge"?

 

[Ian123]

Ok once united leave well alone for 5/6 days the queen is new and bees can ball her. Not sure quite what you mean by friendly ball but bees will circle the queen and groom, balling is often precisely that you’ll get a little cluster swamping her. Yes it can be common for the q-less half to start cells whilst uniting, sometimes they will destroy the started cells but I’ve also had them swarm so don’t leave it to long before going back in but do it gently. You don’t normally get the started cells with the air freshener unite but I’m old school. Ian

 

[GuyNir]

Introduced NUC with Queen to queenless Single brood via newspaper 2 days ago...

Checked today.....

2. Notice she was sort of being "friendly balled". Bees were totally surrounding her until they dispersed and she tottered off to another part of the frame and then the same again. Has anyone seen this behaviour before?

Had the same end of last year. Wouldn’t describe it as ‘friendly balled’, more like being ‘harassed’ by the (I suspect) the Q- bees. Back than the Q+ colony was fairly small and the Q- colony was without a Q for several weeks. Lesson learned

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

Ok once united leave well alone for 5/6 days the queen is new and bees can ball her. Not sure quite what you mean by friendly ball but bees will circle the queen and groom, balling is often precisely that you’ll get a little cluster swamping her. Yes it can be common for the q-less half to start cells whilst uniting, sometimes they will destroy the started cells but I’ve also had them swarm so don’t leave it to long before going back in but do it gently. You don’t normally get the started cells with the air freshener unite but I’m old school. Ian

Cheers Ian, the knowledge I was looking for.

FYI - I tried air freshener unite on this same hive and failed. So my personal approach will be from now on:
Q+ in NUC to Q- Hive = Newspaper
Q- NUC to Q = Glade
Q- Hive to Q+ Hive = Glade



Sent from my SM-G986B using Tapatalk