Concerns for my amms.

[Curly green finger's]

Hi, after your thought and advice ,
I transferred a 6 frame nuc on the 20th of june into a brood box as there was a good flow on (blackberry) I didn't feed.
Three weeks later they had drawn 4 frames out and there was 6/7 frames of bias I dicided to not put a super on because I wanted more brood in the brood box and wanted them to draw the last frame out .
Two weeks later they superseded, they built back up and had 8 frames of brood by which time the flow had stopped.they had three frames of stores mainly honey and the rest was bias and pollen/honey .
I've looked at them today and no eggs two frames of capped brood hardly any pollen stores and no honey stores .
What I've done , I've given them 1 frame of capped brood and two frames of honey/pollen and put a feeder on with two litres of 2:1 syrup.
I couldn't find hm after pairing frames and they were very aggressive ,Vail bouncing so I closed up and will leave them two or three days hoping that hm is there and the syrup will stimulate the queen to lay .
Does this sound ok what I've done.
Apivar was applies two weeks ago and the varroa drop after week two is 200 mites .
Thanks in advance.
Mark

The extra frame of brood was out of my strongest double brood amms

 

[Swarm]

Could be a brood break, Mark. You've given them some syrup so sit tight and check them later on.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Could be a brood break, Mark. You've given them some syrup so sit tight and check them later on.

I did also think that Steve I've four pure amms colonys now in this apiary and the other queens are laying , I'll leave them a bit longer than a couple of days .
Cheers some times you just need a bit of clarification from others .
Mark.

 

[Murox]

Hopefully it is a brood break. You have taken care of feed but is there a source of pollen available to them? You could try putting in a small section of a frame of eggs from another hive and see what they do with it. 2:1 syrup will get stored, you want 1:1 for stimulation; but they will be winding down now.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Hopefully it is a brood break. You have taken care of feed but is there a source of pollen available to them? You could try putting in a small section of a frame of eggs from another hive and see what they do with it. 2:1 syrup will get stored, you want 1:1 for stimulation; but they will be winding down now.

Pollen source locally lots of gorse small amount of Heather hb 1 mile away by the dore river.

I want them to store 2:1 as there very light if I used 1:1 they would have to move it about.
I hear what your saying about the eggs but I'll leave them a bit longer fingers crossed hm is there. I hope so because there lovely black darlings.

 

[Beefriendly]

Wouldn't worry Mark, it they have superseded the original queen they are no longer pure Amm's....on a downward spiral to local mongrels.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Wouldn't worry Mark, it they have superseded the original queen they are no longer pure Amm's....on a downward spiral to local mongrels.

F1 bee's now ( no smiley face).

 

[Beefriendly]

F1 bee's now ( no smiley face).

Yup...it's a downhill spiral /ouch vicious little barstewards/'

 

[Curly green finger's]

Yup...it's a downhill spiral /ouch vicious little barstewards/'

Im keeping the amms all together so you never know I might get a F 0.5 . Jokes .
You spend good money on pure bees and they supersede on you, damn I like throwing money at this hobby.

I've two mongrel colonys who get left alone untill the end of inspections .
The one is double brood nasty bar stewards....
But produced 120 lb of honey this season to me that's good after 3/4 years

 

[Erichalfbee]

Im keeping the amms all together so you never know I might get a F 0.5 . Jokes .
You spend good money on pure bees and they supersede on you, damn I like throwing money at this hobby.

I had a lovely black queen from Jonathan Getty. I introduced her in a push in cage which she laid up before I released her. The bees raised queen cells in those eggs and threw her out the front door

 

[For want of a better word]

Apivar and similar can cause queenie to go off lay and force a superceedure... I no longer use it!

If you have a relatively isolated site for your bees there is a good probability that you Amm will apiary vicinity mate.

I am reading the usual old carp in suggestions and unsolicited replies from those who do not like or even believe there is such a beast as a pure Amm. Best ignore them as obviously have had no experience to pass on, and just wish to stir up the usual animosity and disquiet on this forum ( and elsewhere it seems)!

I have been working with a group who have a beautiful apiary of 8 colonies in Cornwall ... on a peninsular and with the area surrounded with Cornish Amm.

DNA results from open mating are very promising with the introgression from non native mongrels non existent.

Keep on top of it.... if possible split your queenless colony down into 3 frame nucs and give each a frame of BIAS and eggs from your best colony... continue to feed, and cross your fingers.

Although further south we are still getting successful Amm open mating sometimes way into October!

Chons da

 

[For want of a better word]

Im keeping the amms all together so you never know I might get a F 0.5 . Jokes .
You spend good money on pure bees and they supersede on you, damn I like throwing money at this hobby.

I've two mongrel colonys who get left alone untill the end of inspections .
The one is double brood nasty bar stewards....
But produced 120 lb of honey this season to me that's good after 3/4 years

Hope you keep them in the next valley!

 

[Curly green finger's]

Hope you keep them in the next valley!

85 miles away in South Shropshire.

 

[masterBK]

They may have superseded yet again (I have had this happen in one of my colonies). The colony also became quite aggressive so I killed her last thursday and united the last remaining 6 comb nuclei to it (was going to overwinter the nucleus).
Lots of mismatings this year in my bit of south yorkshire with queens increasingly becoming drone layers afte a few weeks or just poor layers from the start.

Unlike "Cheers" I have not had a problem with Apivar (did Cheers mean to type "Apilife var" as thymol products can take a queen off lay)

 

[Curly green finger's]

Apivar and similar can cause queenie to go off lay and force a superceedure... I no longer use it!

If you have a relatively isolated site for your bees there is a good probability that you Amm will apiary vicinity mate.

I am reading the usual old carp in suggestions and unsolicited replies from those who do not like or even believe there is such a beast as a pure Amm. Best ignore them as obviously have had no experience to pass on, and just wish to stir up the usual animosity and disquiet on this forum ( and elsewhere it seems)!

I have been working with a group who have a beautiful apiary of 8 colonies in Cornwall ... on a peninsular and with the area surrounded with Cornish Amm.

DNA results from open mating are very promising with the introgression from non native mongrels non existent.

Keep on top of it.... if possible split your queenless colony down into 3 frame nucs and give each a frame of BIAS and eggs from your best colony... continue to feed, and cross your fingers.

Although further south we are still getting successful Amm open mating sometimes way into October!

Chons da

I would split the hive but there's no drones not one in any of the other hives so that would be a no no ...

Best I can hope is it's a brood brake .
Im glad to hear there's some very passionate people out there about amms the cut comb from them is the best I've seen so far and I've enjoyed inspecting them this season more than any of the others .
My 80 year old friend who is our neighbouring farmer also a beek is with me on this she said " Italian bees are fat honey collecting/ consuming monster's and the black girls are delicate caring darlings "
What ever that means.

 

[Curly green finger's]

They may have superseded yet again (I have had this happen in one of my colonies). The colony also became quite aggressive so I killed her last thursday and united the last remaining 6 comb nuclei to it (was going to overwinter the nucleus).
Lots of mismatings this year in my bit of south yorkshire with queens increasingly becoming drone layers afte a few weeks or just poor layers from the start.

Unlike "Cheers" I have not had a problem with Apivar (did Cheers mean to type "Apilife var" as thymol products can take a queen off lay)

I've also not noticed this with apivar .
On day two though it was very warm and there was a bit of bearding at night but....... This could of been because of the weather .
I'm not as experienced as you guys so its interesting to learn .
Thanks for the replys as always..

 

[Murox]

My only experience with Apivar life specifically was a bad one viz queen and laying.

 

[For want of a better word]

They may have superseded yet again (I have had this happen in one of my colonies). The colony also became quite aggressive so I killed her last thursday and united the last remaining 6 comb nuclei to it (was going to overwinter the nucleus).
Lots of mismatings this year in my bit of south yorkshire with queens increasingly becoming drone layers afte a few weeks or just poor layers from the start.

Unlike "Cheers" I have not had a problem with Apivar (did Cheers mean to type "Apilife var" as thymol products can take a queen off lay)

Thanks... that is a good point!

Quite aware that Thymol can put a queen off lay.... have seen this when thymolated sugar (to prevent fermentation) has been given as feed.

However have been aware that Amitraz and bee medicaments thats contain it can also cause stress to the bees... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitraz.


I'm afraid Curley will have to wait and see and be prepared to merge the colony if HM does not get going again.... feed with fondant or invert.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Thanks... that is a good point!

Quite aware that Thymol can put a queen off lay.... have seen this when thymolated sugar (to prevent fermentation) has been given as feed.

However have been aware that Amitraz and bee medicaments thats contain it can also cause stress to the bees... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitraz.


I'm afraid Curley will have to wait and see and be prepared to merge the colony if HM does not get going again.... feed with fondant or invert.

I'll keep you posted as to the out come
Thanks.

 

[For want of a better word]

I'll keep you posted as to the out come
Thanks.

Good luck... you need more Amm colonies!!!