Chalk and Cheese

[iball]

I'm involved with 2 new colonies, 1 mine and 1 my father's 100yds away, both hived from nucs 3 weeks ago, both 4 frames brood and 2 of stores. All in all pretty much identical although my father's nuc appeared to have more bees.

Both hives have been managed in pretty much the same way, we do them both together so we have double the learning experience.

Anyway, three weeks down the line and three inspections later, they are completely different from each other.

Mine are very productive, they have drawn 6 deeps (+4 original making 10) and 9 supers, 1 playcup and are very calm. The queen is in there with 7 frames of brood at various stages. The inspection is a joy.

My fathers hive on the other hand has bees flying in your face, but no stings in the suit, although they have drawn 7 deeps they haven't touched the super there was 11 playcups and sealed 3 queen cells top and central on their frames these were quite feeble, smooth and not very large and no they weren't drone cells (supersedure?). We didn't see the queen and we've never seen eggs (Must go to specsavers), there was larvae at various sizes and capped brood. There is plenty of available brood space and stores

We removed the queencells from my father's hive and we'll see what happens next week. Comparing the 2 hives and with my limited experience my father's hive is not happy.

What does this tell us?

1, Well you can get good uns and not so good uns.
2, We're probably going to have to do some swarm control on a 3 week old hive.

Any suggestions on question 2 would be appreciated.

Cheers

Ian

 

[oliver90owner]

To find eggs - look at older brood, then younger brood then youngest brood and next to those you may well find an area of eggs. Not always, of course, but a good starting point.

Doubt they will swarm yet, but supercedure is a possibility. Supercedure cells are usually a leisurely affair and well formed.

All sorts of variables with two colonies. First question might be are the brood and most of the bees the offspring of the queen? In other words, how long has the nuc been 'as a nuc'? There may be environmental differences too - even if only a matter of 90m difference. Supering over just a little less bees can slow them down inordinately.

The queens may well be different genetically, so different traits. The proof of the pudding...... an all that, is the overall characteristics of the colony. No good getting loads of brood if the colony doesn't last the winter etc. 3 weeks is not a long time line to draw definitive conclusions.

Regards, RAB

 

[VEG]

First rule is DO NOT remove queen cells unless you are 100% sure you have eggs in the brood box. As you say you didnt see any eggs so by removing those queen cells they will now have no chance of making another queen. You should add a frame of eggs (no bees) from your other hive so they can make new queen cells.