Tremyfro
Queen Bee
- Joined
- May 19, 2014
- Messages
- 2,434
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Hive Type
- Beehaus
- Number of Hives
- Possibly...5 and a bit...depends on the bees.
Earlier this year I decided that I wanted to increase my colonies. So I set about building up one of my colonies. I chose this particular colony because they were quiet on the comb, the queen was prolific, there was no sign of disease and they made a goodly amount of honey...and I loved them as they were my first bees. They built up early in the spring. By the time it was possible to think about making queen cells...there was a jumbo national plus a national brood box....full of bees and brood. I also had a number of brood frames pulled out and filled with syrup and pollen. It seemed the right time. I set about selecting a frame to try my hand at grafting. I had everything ready and in due course these special babies were put into the colony to be nurtured into queen cells. The bees, of course laughed at my efforts. They played with my emotions...adding bits of lacy wax around the queen cups. A dismal failure! However, in true generosity, the girls took over and made a number of beautiful superceedure cells...all the same age.
Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth...I snaffled the queen cells as they were capped and made up the nucs from the rest of the colony. My Lovely Queen remained with 3 frames of brood...to recover from this insult along with her work force...which went on to make some lovely honey from the local Rape.
On 7.5.15 I made 5 nucs..sadly one failed...I hadn't thought the queen cell looked right. So I had 4... A nail biting time passed as I waited for the queens to emerge and get mated. Nucs 1, 2 and 4 had queens by the end of May. Soon after eggs were seen. Nuc 3 had a lovely big queen but she either never mated or they got rid of her...she never laid any eggs. Although this nuc was given further frames of eggs and they did eventually make a new queen....the wasps decimated them and that was then end of Nuc 3. An extra nuc had been made from an extra queen cell. All the remaining frames from the jumbo hive were removed to a Beehaus with a queen cell. The original ...My lovely Queen was transferred to another nuc...to grow again.
So now I had 5 young colonies. They were growing well and I sold 2 of them.
In the meantime, I made up nucs for 2 new Carniolan queens..arriving through the post ..they caused quite a stir with our postman! They had to be seen and admired. One of the new queens went into a full colony eventually and the other grew from the nuc she was in.
Since then one of the new queens colonies kept making superceedure cells...so I made a nuc to house one...just in case. Now they have made more....so I removed the queen into a nuc...for safekeeping and let them get on with it...ATM they have a new queen and we are awaiting her starting to lay.
It has been an exciting summer.
The first nucs are now on 5 and 4, 14x12 frames. These are laid up edge to edge. They suffered a little slowing up when the weather stopped foraging and I was a bit slow realising they needed feeding...but I started feeding at the end of July...so they are moving forward again.
Given the poor mating weather and the poor foraging weather and the dearth of nectar...they seem to be holding their own. I would have liked them to have expanded a little more but perhaps I should be satisfied.
I know some areas have had good nectar flows but here in South Wales...on my hilltop...it has been dire since the spring rape.
Now I sit counting my colonies..8 plus a nuc and I feel rich. It is more than I ever hoped for, especially since I sold 2 nucs as well. I have learnt a huge amount...I have been puzzled, amazed and excited by turn.
It's just as well I wasn't really hoping for much honey...as I would be disappointed! Ha ha.
Instead...thank you all for the support and advice....
Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth...I snaffled the queen cells as they were capped and made up the nucs from the rest of the colony. My Lovely Queen remained with 3 frames of brood...to recover from this insult along with her work force...which went on to make some lovely honey from the local Rape.
On 7.5.15 I made 5 nucs..sadly one failed...I hadn't thought the queen cell looked right. So I had 4... A nail biting time passed as I waited for the queens to emerge and get mated. Nucs 1, 2 and 4 had queens by the end of May. Soon after eggs were seen. Nuc 3 had a lovely big queen but she either never mated or they got rid of her...she never laid any eggs. Although this nuc was given further frames of eggs and they did eventually make a new queen....the wasps decimated them and that was then end of Nuc 3. An extra nuc had been made from an extra queen cell. All the remaining frames from the jumbo hive were removed to a Beehaus with a queen cell. The original ...My lovely Queen was transferred to another nuc...to grow again.
So now I had 5 young colonies. They were growing well and I sold 2 of them.
In the meantime, I made up nucs for 2 new Carniolan queens..arriving through the post ..they caused quite a stir with our postman! They had to be seen and admired. One of the new queens went into a full colony eventually and the other grew from the nuc she was in.
Since then one of the new queens colonies kept making superceedure cells...so I made a nuc to house one...just in case. Now they have made more....so I removed the queen into a nuc...for safekeeping and let them get on with it...ATM they have a new queen and we are awaiting her starting to lay.
It has been an exciting summer.
The first nucs are now on 5 and 4, 14x12 frames. These are laid up edge to edge. They suffered a little slowing up when the weather stopped foraging and I was a bit slow realising they needed feeding...but I started feeding at the end of July...so they are moving forward again.
Given the poor mating weather and the poor foraging weather and the dearth of nectar...they seem to be holding their own. I would have liked them to have expanded a little more but perhaps I should be satisfied.
I know some areas have had good nectar flows but here in South Wales...on my hilltop...it has been dire since the spring rape.
Now I sit counting my colonies..8 plus a nuc and I feel rich. It is more than I ever hoped for, especially since I sold 2 nucs as well. I have learnt a huge amount...I have been puzzled, amazed and excited by turn.
It's just as well I wasn't really hoping for much honey...as I would be disappointed! Ha ha.
Instead...thank you all for the support and advice....
