Bah, swarmed :(

[Charlieanne]

Argh failed! Pretty sure mine have swarmed, or the queen died (never saw a swarm leave even though they are in the garden but know that counts for nothing!) Last inspected Monday, eggs, queen, filling out super all hunky dory. A few empty queen cups, a bit of drone brood but nothing to really worry me.

Today going through them, lots out and about flying and bringing pollen in, noted a lot of nectar and pollen stored in the brood box and no eggs.... Then a lovely capped queen cell hidden amongst drone brood at the bottom of a frame (damn!). Didn't panic and continued looking, no eggs, no queen and a couple of other open charged queen cells. Went through the frames twice so sure queen is not there especially as she was marked and easy to see.

So I have put the capped cell frame with two other frames into my poly Nuc, making sure no other qc, and shaken a couple more frames of bees in, foundation to fill the gaps and fed them syrup. Have left one nice looking fat larvae in the brood box - on the side of a frame and removed 4 other less developed ones (I know people say leave two but Hooper says one and had to come indoors for a quick read before I did all this) filled gaps with foundation and left the super with four drawn frames with uncapped stores on, no feed given. Trying to give myself some insurance if one queen does mate and want to increase anyway so if both mate that's ok)

Plan to check the Nuc tomorrow evening to make sure enough bees to cover brood and if not shake more in. Then check both next week to see if more qc to remove. Is that right?

Thoughts? Guessing the "practice" cups I hve seen for the past couple of weeks weren't so practice after all. Should have AS'd on Monday even though queen cups were empty? Trying to work out where it went wrong so can avoid it next time.

Obviously need more practice at this whole beekeeping lark, the learning curve is steep!

 

[enrico]

Trust me... You have done far better than most, keep it up. You will always stand the chance of missing queen cells, we all do, however experienced, so just smile and be happy that you did everything right after that.
E

 

[Charlieanne]

Thank you Enrico, I feel a little less useless after being assured that swarms in the first year aren't an issues (all lies!!!!)

My other question is do I not inspect the hives after next week to pull down any emergency queen cells for 2-3 weeks to let the queens hopefully get mated? I have a maisemore Nuc so can top up the feeder without opening the box

 

[enrico]

I inspect after five days just to ensure that there are no more queen cells. Not essential but good practise. Make sure you don't damage the queen cell you know is in there!
E

 

[Charlieanne]

Lovely, thanks for the advice. Fingers crossed at least one of them hatches and mates.

 

[Charlieanne]

So for an update just been to check both hive and Nuc and both have queens and both are laying. Both queens seen, the Nuc queen is bigger than the hive one, but hive queen started a bit earlier as larvae in the hive and just eggs in the Nuc.

Is there time for them to both build up for winter? (Hive is basically a Nuc size on 5 frames dummied down) or should I think about combining in a few weeks once new brood has hatched and can evaluate temper, make sue not drone laying etc?

 

[Hawklord]

Plenty of time for build up of both if the weather comes good.

 

[Heather]

Well done, nicely manipulated.. swarms can happen to us all.
There is a bit of a lull in nectar with this hot weather. They may appreciate about 500ml syrup to help them produce wax for new frames. No more or queen wont have room to lay if they store any. Bit of a balancing act here.
Reduce entrances to 1 bee space as vulnerable and wasps being a pain!

 

[Charlieanne]

Ta for the advice - wasps are definitely annoying! nuc entrance is a third open and hive has a 2"x 0.5" entrance and not seen any wasps coming and going freely. I'll keep an eye on how they grow, just want them to be strong enough to survive winter.

 

[enrico]

Well done.... Three hive owner now! The bees will get through the winter but will your bank account? Loads of dosh!!! Proud of you
E