?another way to help find queen

[drex]

A question for those more experienced.

Today I was looking through a new colony to try to find the queen to mark her. 8 frames of brood and lots of bees. 2 runs through the box and could not spot her ( I am usually not too bad at seeing her if she is to be seen).

One of the frames was a super frame, from the bottom of which I wanted to cull the drone brood ( as part of IPM). On giving the frame a good shake ( into the hive) one of the few remaining attached bees was the queen, who I marked using a crown of thorns, and replaced the frame intact.

Is the queen known to hang on well? Might help spot her as a last resort, especially if intending to do a shook swarm/filter through QE.

 

[VEG]

confused
You say you couldn't find her then say you marked her

 

[drex]

Sorry Veg, I thought it was clear.

I was inspecting in order to find and mark her. After two runs through the box, I could not see her, so thought I would try another day.

Before closing I thought I would cull the drone brood, shook that frame and there she was.

Do queens hang on tight?

 

[Bates]

Do queens hang on tight?

Yes generally, but I dont think that would work everytime. Generally shes on the first frame you looked at lol.

 

[BeeNice]

Don't know about your Queen, but OUR queen with hang on as long as possible (Poor charlie!!) Steven

 

[REDWOOD]

Don't know about shaking bees never tried it but what works with me is movement, the queen is generally the fastest moving bee on the frame that catches my eye

 

[VEG]

Don't know about shaking bees never tried it but what works with me is movement, the queen is generally the fastest moving bee on the frame that catches my eye

How do you check for queen cells if you dont shake the bees off the frames?

 

[Heather]

Where you are suspicious - cluster of bees hiding the comb- blow on them- they scatter - may be the curry last night

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

yes, found in general the queen hangs on better than the others (but if nothing else a gentle shake dislodges the flying bees so the frameis a litle less congested)

 

[Silly Bee]

How do you check for queen cells if you dont shake the bees off the frames?

Is shaking a frame with queen cells on a good idea?

 

[FreeFall]

Is shaking a frame with queen cells on a good idea?

Depends whether you want to keep 'em or mash 'em!

 

[VEG]

Is shaking a frame with queen cells on a good idea?

I find the cell on the frame I want to keep then, shake the bees off all the other frames into the hive one frame at a time inspect it put it back, move on to the next frame very easy to do. You would have to blow a lot of bees out of the way going through all the frames plus sometimes if the hive is a bit tetchy they dont like me blowing on them.

 

[thepliedes]

I attended a lecture recently at the spring conference regarding the mating of honey bees and was told that we should not be culling drone in order to widen the gene pool of honey bees. It is a dangerous practice to do this when there is nothing actually wrong with the drones we are culling. Culling, as a practice in nature, does not work as the mathematics of population dynamics shows and many groups within nature are looking at this practice. It actually (counter-intuitively) produces MORE of a species and this has been proved. Thoughts?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I attended a lecture recently at the spring conference regarding the mating of honey bees and was told that we should not be culling drone in order to widen the gene pool of honey bees. It is a dangerous practice to do this when there is nothing actually wrong with the drones we are culling. Culling, as a practice in nature, does not work as the mathematics of population dynamics shows and many groups within nature are looking at this practice. It actually (counter-intuitively) produces MORE of a species and this has been proved. Thoughts?

Wouldn't it be better to start another thread?

 

[thepliedes]

Is it wise to shake brood frame at alL?

 

[VEG]

is it wise not to?

 

[REDWOOD]

How do you check for queen cells if you dont shake the bees off the frames?

I do shake bees but not to find the queen only to check brood and QC, I look for the queen first before shaking

 

[VEG]

I thought as much did you do the comb workshop with fera?

 

[REDWOOD]

Where you are suspicious - cluster of bees hiding the comb- blow on them- they scatter - may be the curry last night

always works for me and especially play cups

 

[REDWOOD]

I thought as much did you do the comb workshop with fera?

Not yet but I need to book one soon, the trouble is shift work !!!!!