- Joined
- May 2, 2018
- Messages
- 653
- Reaction score
- 645
- Location
- Nr Maidstone, Kent, UK
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 4
Yesterday, whilst I was working, my neighbours saw a lot of activity around my 'B' hive. I put it down to orientation flights, expecting that what they thought was a 'lot' of bees, wasn't that many in reality. However, when I went to check them this morning, there was a small cluster of approx. 70 bees on the side of hive B. They were gathered where there's a slight gap between the QE and the super above it so I thought perhaps they just hadn't found the hive entrance in all of the wind we've had here and clustered where they might be able to smell 'home' through the gap. I started brushing them off onto a board to put them near the entrance when I noticed an unmarked queen amongst them. When I held them near the entrance to hive B a few bees came out and attacked a couple of the cluster bees so not knowing what else to do I put the tiny cluster with their queen in a nuc box and decided I'd better inspect both hives to see what was going on.
Hive B has a marked 2020 queen (the result of an AS at the beginning of May). Since May they've only produced empty play cups, not even an egg in them, and I inspect them regularly, so I really don't think the queen has come from this hive. I didn't see Buttercup, the hive B queen, today, but she's often shy so that's not unusual, and I did see plenty of eggs and no signs of any queen cells, new or old.
Hive A has a marked 2018 queen (the Q+ half of the May AS). This hive did produce queen cells after the AS, so on 27th July I put Anthea, the queen, in a nuc, leaving hive A with one queen cell. About 10 days later the nuc started to get robbed. Not wanting to risk my backup queen, and not having anywhere else to move the nuc, I made sure hive A had all queen cells removed, and united the nuc (plus Anthea) back with hive A. Last friday (10 days after the unite) I found one sealed queen cell hanging in the middle of a frame. There weren't any other QCs and since this was in a typical 'supersedure' position I left it thinking that hive A wanted to supersede Anthea. Inspecting hive A today I saw Anthea, and plenty of eggs, and absolutely no sign of the QC from last week (I'd marked the frame) and no other QCs.
So, I'm assuming the extra queen came from hive A? What should I do with her now? She's currently in a nuc with the 60 or 70 bees she was clustered with. I've added a couple of old brood frames with pollen and a tiny bit of honey stores. It's such a pitiful handful of bees that I presume they have no chance of surviving on their own. I have two other big colonies, but is it worth putting a frame of capped brood in with them? Would a mixture of bees shaken in from both other colonies bolster numbers, or would they just fight?
Utterly confused, and hoping for some advice!
Hive B has a marked 2020 queen (the result of an AS at the beginning of May). Since May they've only produced empty play cups, not even an egg in them, and I inspect them regularly, so I really don't think the queen has come from this hive. I didn't see Buttercup, the hive B queen, today, but she's often shy so that's not unusual, and I did see plenty of eggs and no signs of any queen cells, new or old.
Hive A has a marked 2018 queen (the Q+ half of the May AS). This hive did produce queen cells after the AS, so on 27th July I put Anthea, the queen, in a nuc, leaving hive A with one queen cell. About 10 days later the nuc started to get robbed. Not wanting to risk my backup queen, and not having anywhere else to move the nuc, I made sure hive A had all queen cells removed, and united the nuc (plus Anthea) back with hive A. Last friday (10 days after the unite) I found one sealed queen cell hanging in the middle of a frame. There weren't any other QCs and since this was in a typical 'supersedure' position I left it thinking that hive A wanted to supersede Anthea. Inspecting hive A today I saw Anthea, and plenty of eggs, and absolutely no sign of the QC from last week (I'd marked the frame) and no other QCs.
So, I'm assuming the extra queen came from hive A? What should I do with her now? She's currently in a nuc with the 60 or 70 bees she was clustered with. I've added a couple of old brood frames with pollen and a tiny bit of honey stores. It's such a pitiful handful of bees that I presume they have no chance of surviving on their own. I have two other big colonies, but is it worth putting a frame of capped brood in with them? Would a mixture of bees shaken in from both other colonies bolster numbers, or would they just fight?
Utterly confused, and hoping for some advice!
- not to help my sting!
