- Joined
- Jul 27, 2014
- Messages
- 98
- Reaction score
- 10
- Location
- South Lincolnshire
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 3 + 3 nucs
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!
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!