gar1990
New Bee
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2022
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 5
- Location
- Belfast
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 4
Hi, So I was having a quick look at the bees today just to see how the supers were coming on. looked at two hives and they are doing very well three and two supers nearly filled. I went to check another hive which was a spilt in mid may using the nucleus method. This was in a nuc for a month and then has been in a full hive since mid june. It built very quickly and a took three capped brood frames from it as a nuc to boost the hive it came from (the one with three supers now) and to try to slow its growth. About two/tree weeks ago I noticed that it had nearly drawn all the frames in the full sized hive so I added a super. Last week the bees were in there drawing comb on around 4 frames.
I had a look this today and there were no bees in the super so I thought oh no, I'd better do a full inspection. on inspection there are no eggs and no young larva just some very large ones uncapped. so i reckon there has been no eggs laid for 7 days (3+4) as all brood will be capped at 8. there was one sealed queen cell and one well developed one which was uncapped. The queen has swarmed. I left just one queen cell and as there are no eggs etc there will be no emergency cells.
My confusion comes from having performed swarm control in may where this queen thinks that she has swarmed already, why did she do so again in July? she is a white queen
Is there anything else I could have done to prevent this? aside from inspections and Nucing it again.
Is it too late for this new queen cell to mate?
My other dilemma is that I have a nuc that is well developed now with 6 full frames, brood on them all and not much room. I have no other equipment to upgrade her to a full hive and cant currently get any more. is there anything I can do to prevent her swarming/ if she does will the Nuc be able to rear a sufficient quality of queen?
Many thanks
Gareth
I had a look this today and there were no bees in the super so I thought oh no, I'd better do a full inspection. on inspection there are no eggs and no young larva just some very large ones uncapped. so i reckon there has been no eggs laid for 7 days (3+4) as all brood will be capped at 8. there was one sealed queen cell and one well developed one which was uncapped. The queen has swarmed. I left just one queen cell and as there are no eggs etc there will be no emergency cells.
My confusion comes from having performed swarm control in may where this queen thinks that she has swarmed already, why did she do so again in July? she is a white queen
Is there anything else I could have done to prevent this? aside from inspections and Nucing it again.
Is it too late for this new queen cell to mate?
My other dilemma is that I have a nuc that is well developed now with 6 full frames, brood on them all and not much room. I have no other equipment to upgrade her to a full hive and cant currently get any more. is there anything I can do to prevent her swarming/ if she does will the Nuc be able to rear a sufficient quality of queen?
Many thanks
Gareth