AS In the rain?

[OursonAnglaise]

I have done my weekly inspection, and have found a number of queen cells. I know I need to do an AS, but in the time it has taken me to get my spare brood box sorted & frames sorted, what was a warm, (but cloudy and heavy over the mountains) & occasionally sunny day has now drawn in & is cloudy & wet.

I will continue my preparations this eve, in the hope that the weather improves in the morning....but if it doesn't can I do an AS in the rain?

If not what are my alternatives?

 

[OursonAnglaise]

I should add that the cells were charged, but not complete

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Just do it.
What have you got to lose?

............... half your colony and a mated queen if you don't

 

[For want of a better word]

A pop up gazebo as Mike Palmer uses in one of his excellent vids would be a good investment!

Yeghes da

 

[OursonAnglaise]

I like the idea of the gazebo, but sourcing one here might take longer than I have! I don't even have a patio umbrella


Never mind, I'll just go for it tomorrow morning. I've got all my kit ready, hopefully it will be a quickish job to find the queen & get her relocated in the new brood box

 

[chrisb]

fishing umbrella ? big and portable might work

 

[OursonAnglaise]

There's an idea. I'll see if I can find my husband's fishing umbrella. It's here somewhere. Unfortunately he isn't this weekend.

 

[Eyeman]

2 simple things to make life easier:

1. Always carry a couple of queen cages in your pocket in case you spot some charged QCs then pop the Q in a cage and place cage in shirt pocket. Always simpler to find the queen today rather than tomorrow! Now you can plan what you are going to do next.
2. Read Whally Shaws Now I have Queen cells....., If the weather is against you and you can't find the queen then follow his instructions for Snellgrove 2 method of AS.

 

[testka]

As per Eyeman would go with the snelgrove 2 method. Here is a link to the doc by Wally Shaw
http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Swarm-Control-Wally-Shaw.pdf


Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Thanks Eyeman & Testka. The Snelgrove does seem the way to go. Particularly as the weather is against me.

I note that method has a secon manipulation '9-10' days later. As i can only get to my bees at the weekend, is 7 days too early for the send step?

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Snelgrove split completed yesterday morning. It was dry but overcast & fairly cool (temp below 10 degrees).

2 frames of brood & bees, plus honey super placed into old position. I did try to find the best 2 frames with BIAS, but the brood box was mainly full of capped brood...although I did see some larvae. I hope that should be sufficient. Checked for QC on those 2 frames and found 2 supercedure cells which I removed (I am a bit confused as I found both supercedure and swarm cells in old hive. Is this normal?).
Unfortunately I didn't hve any drawn frames for the brood box, so they only have foundation, so I have left this hive with syup.

Old hive on new stand has the old queen (I did see her, but as I had gone with a Snelgrove plan, I didn't swap to doing a standard AS, particularly given the temperature and it would have taken me a very long time to ensure I had removed all of the QCs). Two frames of foundation were given to this hive.

In the afternoon, when it had warmed up a little, the new brood box on the old stand was showing some signs of activity, but not much.

The old hive on the new stand, was not showing any activity at all. No bees going in or out. Even tapping it on the side only got me 1 head at the entrance!

The weather forecast for the next couple of days is warmer, so I hope the majority of the older bees will move to the new hive on the old stand.

I am a little worried that it wont work, but I cannot do anything for the next week whilst I am away at work - Its probably for the best as it will stop me interfering.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Checked for QC on those 2 frames and found 2 supercedure cells which I removed (I am a bit confused as I found both supercedure and swarm cells in old hive. Is this normal?).

I think you've fallen into the same trap as a lot on here. You cannot have both in a hive - if there are a lot of QC's in a hive they're all swarm cells regardless of where on the frame they are, same as you may find supersedure cells on the sides of a frame.
Never make the assumption that, just because there's one or two in the middle of a frame they are supersedure cells.
The books can only take you so far

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

the brood box was mainly full of capped brood...

Sounds like you should give more space to other colonies* etc, and helps account (to some degree) for the QCs.

* The "1 hive" is avowedly wrong...

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Thanks JBM, that explains a LOT.

At least I remebered to remove them before moving the frames into the new box. It will be interesting to see what they have got up to by this time next week!

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Sounds like you should give more space to other colonies* etc, and helps account (to some degree) for the QCs.

* The "1 hive" is avowedly wrong...

Hi TTLTB - I don't understand how having more colonies would have stopped this colony producing QCs?

It was always my intention this year to move to 2 hives - in my first year 1 hive was more than enough to cope with.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Hi TTLTB - I don't understand how having more colonies would have stopped this colony producing QCs?

It was always my intention this year to move to 2 hives - in my first year 1 hive was more than enough to cope with.

Let me reword, then. It sounds like in future your colonies could benefit from having more room.

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Let me reword, then. It sounds like in future your colonies could benefit from having more room.

Well that is a more sensible response. More colonies has nothing to do with this colony choosing to swarm then?

Given that I moved from brood to brood and a half at the end of March, and then only last week gave them another empty super, I thought I had given them 'more room'.

Obviously not enough, but I live and learn!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Well that is a more sensible response. More colonies has nothing to do with this colony choosing to swarm then?

Given that I moved from brood to brood and a half at the end of March, and then only last week gave them another empty super, I thought I had given them 'more room'.

Obviously not enough, but I live and learn!

So when you said "the brood box was full of sealed brood, what was going on in the other boxes (foundation, also full of brood/honey etc) and what position were they in?

 

[OursonAnglaise]

Yesterday, when I performed the Snelgove the main brood box was full of brood, with 1 frame full of stores, the 1/2 brood was probably about 40% brood, with an arc of stores abov, however the previous week the frames of that box were completely full of capped brood, which was what promted me to add another super.

To be honest, on Saturday, when I found queen cells on frames 2 3 & 4 of the upper brood box (super). I closed up to prepare for the AS. So I have an incomplete knowledge of the current status. (Error number 1? I am not sure if I should have continued inspecting at this point)

Error number 2 could be that I placed the top super (super #2) above a queen excluder. I maybe should have just provided that space ?

 

[MuswellMetro]

I think that you needed more room before last week,, brood occupies a third of the space of emerged bees, so one frame of brood emerging needs 1/3rd of a super of extra over overnight roosting space for the bees

if you loook at a hive at midday remember half the bees could be foraging, where are they going to roost at night