Colony slow to build up.

[madasafish]

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=49691#post49691

tells you how to treat nosema.

I follow it: never had any bees with it.

 

[Woodland bees]

I had that in the past with one colony. I saw it during the winter and the colony never came right. Queen never laid properly, it dwindled and i eventually shook it out.

Thanks for your reply. I did read that thread as it came up when I was googling the eggs.

 

[Woodland bees]

A further update on this. I'm leaving the hive going as I have others doing well and I am curious to see if this hive sorts itself out. I'm raising a couple of queens from a different colony in Nucs in case I need to requeen.

Anyway, today I had a quick look through and they are about 6 frames of brood, including about four sides of eggs. There was a fair bit of sealed worker brood but not much larvae, also hardly any drone brood. I did notice once cell with about four eggs and another with two, hundreds more had a single egg (checked with magnifying glass). I also took a good look at the queen, she was moving about fine, had all her legs and her wings looked fine.

It just seems she lays well for a while and then stops. Plenty of room with a few fully drawn and previously used frames.

I had hoped the colony would supersede but they don't seem inclined to.

 

[Woodland bees]

I had hoped the colony would supersede but they don't seem inclined to.

Hopefully the last update. They raised a supercedure cell but it wasn't viable. They then raised another which hatched and quickly mated and started laying. No sign of old Q.

The brood pattern is much better, typical solid brood in middle of the frame and now a couple of frames are almost solid brood.

If things continue improving it would seem all the problems were down to a poorly performing Q rather than any disease.

 

[Swarm]

Nice result.