leonotron
House Bee
- Joined
- May 9, 2013
- Messages
- 150
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Dublin, Ireland
- Hive Type
- None
- Number of Hives
- 2.5
Just looking for some input and advice about my bee keeping issue.
A bit of background first. I opened them up two weeks ago and found they were doing well so added a super and gave them a feed to encourage them to draw out the foundation.
After leaving them for two weeks I opened them yesterday to do an inspection. Found the super all drawn out and about 20% sealed. When I looked in the brood box I found a number of queen cells with larvae in them. Closed back up to figure out what to do.
Started artificial swarm this afternoon. Opened up to find that they had sealed a couple of the cells. The number looks about the same to me so I would think they haven't swarmed. Also spotted very tiny eggs.
Despite a number of attempts I was unable to find the queen.
One of the queen cells is about a quarter of the way up the frame, is this a supercedure cell? The rest are on the bottom of frames.
So I put the new brood box in the old position, put the frame that contains brood and one sealed queen cell in as well and placed the supers back on top. In the new position is the old brood box with one unsealed queen cell.
Have I done the right thing? Is the queen still there and preparing to swarm or will the fact that I've split them make them think they have swarmed and they could tear down the queen cell if the queen is in there.
The queen is from an emergency queen cell from last September, perhaps she didn't mate that well and they are superceding her? The queen is also unclipped and unmarked. Myself and a very experienced beekeeper couldn't spot her last September and I haven't seen her this year either. She's proving quite elusive.
A bit of background first. I opened them up two weeks ago and found they were doing well so added a super and gave them a feed to encourage them to draw out the foundation.
After leaving them for two weeks I opened them yesterday to do an inspection. Found the super all drawn out and about 20% sealed. When I looked in the brood box I found a number of queen cells with larvae in them. Closed back up to figure out what to do.
Started artificial swarm this afternoon. Opened up to find that they had sealed a couple of the cells. The number looks about the same to me so I would think they haven't swarmed. Also spotted very tiny eggs.
Despite a number of attempts I was unable to find the queen.
One of the queen cells is about a quarter of the way up the frame, is this a supercedure cell? The rest are on the bottom of frames.
So I put the new brood box in the old position, put the frame that contains brood and one sealed queen cell in as well and placed the supers back on top. In the new position is the old brood box with one unsealed queen cell.
Have I done the right thing? Is the queen still there and preparing to swarm or will the fact that I've split them make them think they have swarmed and they could tear down the queen cell if the queen is in there.
The queen is from an emergency queen cell from last September, perhaps she didn't mate that well and they are superceding her? The queen is also unclipped and unmarked. Myself and a very experienced beekeeper couldn't spot her last September and I haven't seen her this year either. She's proving quite elusive.