iball
House Bee
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2010
- Messages
- 335
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Mossley, Lancs.
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6
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
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