And so it begins

[Niv]

I did carry one once. But usually had difficulty finding it.

What you need is a bigger magnifying glass to help you find it.

 

[pnkemp]

Moved the girls into the full sized National as planned yesterday. Irritatingly didn’t spot the marked queen but we were moving pretty fast to move them in between showers.
Left the old nuc open on its side in front of the hive as there were a few determined handlers on inside plus some coming out of the feeder. When I left they were slowly moving across to the hive and we were seeing traffic in and out.
Bit of syrup in the feeder on the new hive to help them draw out the new frames.
Brood in all stages so even if something happened to Her Majesty we should be ok. Surprising amount of drone brood. Previously we’d seen only one or two, now a few significant patches. Hopefully a sign that the hive is more mature and getting to a good number of workers rather than a problem with a duff queen or drone laying worker.

My friend has really gotten the bug though. He’s talking about expanding to 10 hives. I’m hoping for two, with maybe making up a nuc to overwinter from our hive in a couple of months.

So far, so good.

 

[pnkemp]

Wow, one week and all the four foundation frames are nearly fully drawn, and being filled with nectar. My friend decided you can’t have too much feed and has kept the feeder full, which has left the now unmarked queen (presumably the workers cleaned her off) little space to lay, As she’s doing a cracking job laying, rather a lot of drones, but not got enough experience to know if it is more than normal.

Super on with foundation to draw, and I’ve made him promise to stop feeding them after the current batch, hopefully not quite enough to draw the super frames, is done.

I’m hoping next week we will have more space to lay in the brood box if they move some of the syrup up into the supers, though I realise it means the honey will be tainted, at least for the first super, so we can leave that for the bees.

So far still on track.

The old nuc is set up as a bait box again just for the hell of it.

 

[pargyle]

Wow, one week and all the four foundation frames are nearly fully drawn, and being filled with nectar. My friend decided you can’t have too much feed and has kept the feeder full, which has left the now unmarked queen (presumably the workers cleaned her off) little space to lay, As she’s doing a cracking job laying, rather a lot of drones, but not got enough experience to know if it is more than normal.

Super on with foundation to draw, and I’ve made him promise to stop feeding them after the current batch, hopefully not quite enough to draw the super frames, is done.

I’m hoping next week we will have more space to lay in the brood box if they move some of the syrup up into the supers, though I realise it means the honey will be tainted, at least for the first super, so we can leave that for the bees.

Get the feeder off ... they really don't need feeding at this time of the year - you will end up with sugar syrup stored in with the honey and potentially they will move it around - you will find it contaminates all your supers if you are not careful. There's loads of forage about .. bramble, RBW, beans, lavender, loostrife all going mad round me - putting syrup on just stops them foraging.

 

[pnkemp]

Well I feel like a real beekeeper now as one of the girls zapped me right by my eye on last inspection, waiting until I'd de-suited. Thankfully, as it was my first ever sting in my life very little reaction. I am on anti-histamines for hay fever anyway, and iced it and took a dose of Piriton and in a couple of hours you could barely see it.

More importantly the girls are doing fine. Full brood box, and with all the syrup my friend was obsessed with 3 frames full of capped...well syrup. To give Her Majesty (unseen for 3 weeks but we have eggs and BIAS so I'm not bothered) room to lay we removed one of the frames and whacked in a foundation frame.
Super being drawn out though nothing stored yet.
One or two queen cups but no signs of wanting to swarm, so generally all good.

The idea had been we could give them the frame of capped syrup in the autumn, but my friends kids got too excited at the "honey" so they scraped away all the comb, strained it, and now have their first jars of "honey". I've pointed out sotto voce that they really shouldn't give it away let alone sell it as its not really honey though it is "the best honey I've ever had" according to their 5 year old.

Still, I'm hopeful that we will get a few super frames of actual honey to taste and maybe get a late split off to make up a nuc to overwinter. Or at least that's my aim.

 

[Murox]

Well I feel like a real beekeeper now as one of the girls zapped me right by my eye on last inspection, waiting until I'd de-suited. Thankfully, as it was my first ever sting in my life very little reaction. I am on anti-histamines for hay fever anyway, and iced it and took a dose of Piriton and in a couple of hours you could barely see it.

More importantly the girls are doing fine. Full brood box, and with all the syrup my friend was obsessed with 3 frames full of capped...well syrup. To give Her Majesty (unseen for 3 weeks but we have eggs and BIAS so I'm not bothered) room to lay we removed one of the frames and whacked in a foundation frame.
Super being drawn out though nothing stored yet.
One or two queen cups but no signs of wanting to swarm, so generally all good.

The idea had been we could give them the frame of capped syrup in the autumn, but my friends kids got too excited at the "honey" so they scraped away all the comb, strained it, and now have their first jars of "honey". I've pointed out sotto voce that they really shouldn't give it away let alone sell it as its not really honey though it is "the best honey I've ever had" according to their 5 year old.

Still, I'm hopeful that we will get a few super frames of actual honey to taste and maybe get a late split off to make up a nuc to overwinter. Or at least that's my aim.

If this is your first season - have a read through this thread especially from post 11 onwards https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=47203&page=2

 

[pnkemp]

Thanks Murox, food for thought. Better to have one strong hive than two weaker ones. I shall sit on my hands ��

 

[robmort]

Well just a word of advice, if she is a new queen leave her alone. Don't take marking queens lightly, especially new, young queens, they are delicate and accidents can happen.
.....
Regardless of marking methods some will just expire before your eyes. Not crushed, not skewered, as if the stress is too much for them.
I've had this happen twice, with a crown and also with a tube and I can tell you it's not a nice feeling. But for your selfish action a beautiful, healthy creature has lost its life.

This apparent sudden death of queens from stress while marking them is not what it seems and they usually recover quickly. Has happened to me.
See for example:
https://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?270699-Queen-Fainting-during-marking

 

[Newbeeneil]

It's happened several times with me ............ maybe I might a bit rough with the girls???

 

[Swarm]

Yes some do recover, on the other hand some don't.