dclewis
House Bee
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2010
- Messages
- 262
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Normandy/Paris France
- Hive Type
- Dadant
- Number of Hives
- 9
Ok I picked up a fairly late swarm the tail end of July last year. (It was not a prime swarm as it was the 2nd half of a swarm that left a hole in a tree one afternoon and split into 2 swarms. I was too late arriving to get both halfs and saw the first half fly off into the blue yonder.) The swarm collony stayed smallish but came through winter ok. But I was never too convinced that the Q was up to much as her laying rate never took off.
My best hive this spring took off like a train so I took some sealed brood and gave it to the weak hive a couple of weeks ago. Those bees will now be house bees. Now is it that these house bees from my good queen have inherently better skills at looking after their Q or is it the sheer nos of bees in the hive that helps or just the good flow from the OSR that has resulted in the Q's laying rate just taking off all of a sudden. From a partially 5F of Bias to nearly every cell in the BB now seems to have an egg in it! Great to see, but will the laying rate drop back when the Q's own brood takes over again and stops looking after the Q as well. Or is it more likely to be the OSR flow that has encouraged such a change in this queens productivity?
My best hive this spring took off like a train so I took some sealed brood and gave it to the weak hive a couple of weeks ago. Those bees will now be house bees. Now is it that these house bees from my good queen have inherently better skills at looking after their Q or is it the sheer nos of bees in the hive that helps or just the good flow from the OSR that has resulted in the Q's laying rate just taking off all of a sudden. From a partially 5F of Bias to nearly every cell in the BB now seems to have an egg in it! Great to see, but will the laying rate drop back when the Q's own brood takes over again and stops looking after the Q as well. Or is it more likely to be the OSR flow that has encouraged such a change in this queens productivity?
