an update ....

[BabyBee]

ok so some of you remember my recent traumas so i thought i'd give you the update.

went into my nuc today and Q has emerged from the bottom of the cell so all looks well. didnt see her though.

we picked of 7 other QC's and as we did 2 Q's emerged there and then! fortunately had a much more experienced beek with us, so she had all the gear and put them into separate boxes and is off to do something interesting with them no doubt!

things looking good and i've to feed them syrup and check them again in a week! what a week that was!

my neighbour's hive was also checked and she had umpteen QC's too - picked all but 2 off and set that frame plus 2 others into another neighbours brood box (nuc) and off it went to it's new home the other side of the village!

so now the village has gone from one hive to 4 hives in the space of about 3 weeks!

very exciting and lots of great advice from here, so many many thanks to you all!

 

[margob99]

Nice one, BabyBee!

 

[rae]

Good. Excellent that you have experience to call upon...!

 

[Mike a]

we picked of 7 other QC's and as we did 2 Q's emerged there and then! fortunately had a much more experienced beek with us, so she had all the gear and put them into separate boxes and is off to do something interesting with them no doubt!

Its not much fun when the queen decides she is going to fly around the apiary because the introduction cage I was about to put into the queenless hive falls apart as I tried to remove the plastic tab covering the candy plug.

Sods law she landed next to the entrance of queen right hive 3 times and each time a couple of guard bees chased her off again before I could retrieve her and put her back in the cage and pop her into the queenless hive.

So now I always carry a couple of queen clips just incase.

 

[susbees]

Its not much fun when the queen decides she is going to fly around the apiary because the introduction cage I was about to put into the queenless hive falls apart as I tried to remove the plastic tab covering the candy plug.

Sods law she landed next to the entrance of queen right hive 3 times and each time a couple of guard bees chased her off again before I could retrieve her and put her back in the cage and pop her into the queenless hive.

So now I always carry a couple of queen clips just incase.

Thanks for the reminder to put mine back in my top suit pocket. Just been washed (and soaked yesterday during the inspections that never were and won't be til Friday or so...by which time everything will, no doubt, be ready to leave....).

Well done bb btw .

 

[tkwinston4]

so now the village has gone from one hive to 4 hives in the space of about 3 weeks!

very exciting and lots of great advice from here, so many many thanks to you all!

That's excellent that the whole village is getting in on it.

 

[BabyBee]

and the latest is that my hive plus next doors both have sealed brood - so looks like we have mated Q's doing what they are supposed to - hooray!

other neighbour seems to have drone laying workers as only drone brood, scattered around and the 2 QC's that came with his 'nuc' never emerged - we checked them yesterday and both had dead bees in them.

have posted a question here and had some really helpful replies - queen bee lady is coming tomorrow so we can see what her advice is. mine, for what it's worth, is that he lets them die off and starts again (based on advice from here).

thanks to everyone for help and advice - i was going to give the whole thing up as it was w-a-a-ay too stressful, but seems to have settled down now.

 

[rae]

Sealed brood - thank god! Should be eggs and larvae as well!

Keep an eye on the varroa - if your neighbour has it in spades, you probably will too....

 

[BabyBee]

thank you. i'll pop the varroa floor in tonight when i go past and see what's what tomorrow tea time.

 

[BKF Admin]

I am really pleased the forum members could help you out.
Give up ? nobody gets out of this madhouse forum that easy !!
Next season you will be answering questions from the new beekeepers

Regards the neighbers bees I would:

1/ Give them another week to see if they have a new queen that has started by laying drone eggs but will switch over to worker eggs soon.

2/ Buy in a mated queen and go 40 foot away from the hive and shake every bee out and return the hive to its stand and pop the queen cage in.

3/ Do like you said and start over again.