Bailey comb change - another cock-up

[boywonder]

Hi all, quick one, hopefully, for those in-the-know about this procedure.

I tried two last year, using proper Bailey boards. One suceeded; the other failed - as the Queen absconded. I understand this is not uncommon - especially if all the frames in the new box contain foundation; hence the advice to help the stabilisation of the process by inserting (if poss) one frame of drawn comb.

This year, (yesterday lunchtime) I tried another. This time, as I was running the Queen (a strong, established 2019 Queen) into the new box, she just blooming-well took off. She is unclipped.

At this point, I had not closed the bottom entrance, and I am hoping against hope that she will at least have found her way back into the bottom box, and will be settling back down. However, a subsequent, thorough inspection (at tea-time) did not turn-up the Queen.

For now, I have walked away, having removed the Bailey board. At least now, they have space (which they desperately needed anyway), they can draw the foundation, and the Queen (if she is still there) can move freely, upstairs maybe, if she needs to. I appreciate this is not an ideal position to have left them in. However, I strongly suspect I have lost the Queen.

Should a Bailey comb change be this difficult ? Is this normal ?

 

[Madge]

I would start off by adding the box of foundation above the original box, without a queen excluder, and wait for the bees to draw out some foundation and the queen to move up into the new box, before adding the queen excluder and top entrance.

I've added instructions originally posted by somebody in SBAi.

(Or you can entice her up by adding a frame of brood, and sort out that frame later.)

View attachment Bailey Comb Change.pdf

 

[boywonder]

I would start off by adding the box of foundation above the original box, without a queen excluder, and wait for the bees to draw out some foundation and the queen to move up into the new box, before adding the queen excluder and top entrance.

I've added instructions originally posted by somebody in SBAi.

(Or you can entice her up by adding a frame of brood, and sort out that frame later.)

View attachment 17956

Thanks MC - and I think that confirms my own conclusions ... basically that a 'hard-Bailey' (if you can call it that) is actually a pretty brutal intervention, and that the risk is best mitigated, in one form or another.

I am not incompetent in handling my bees, and I am just horrified (though, as I think I understand my bees, not entirely unsurprised) to learn that it's not as easy as the basic procedure (as outlined in e.g. http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/wbka-comb-management-english-web.pdf) implies.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have one on the go and I did exactly as MC
Top box on feed a little even if a flow is on. 3 days later queen is up in the top box then add QX. 2 days after that shut bottom entrance
Don’t forget to let drones out periodically if you have any.

 

[drex]

I have had queens just fly off in the past - not while doing a Bailey though. I just put the hive back together and left it alone for a week. All but one had returned on next inspection.