SimonB
House Bee
I inspected yesterday at the end of the third week of Apiguard treatment. The tray had almost been emptied.
As far as I can tell there is no uncapped brood. I have never yet been able to spot eggs, but saw no larvae also. I had noticed a decline in brood last Saturday (one week ago) but had read on here that varroa treatment can slow the queen down so put it down to that.
My conclusion then is that she stopped laying at least nine days ago, so prior to my last inspection. She is not marked and have never been able to spot her.
Is it too early for her to stop laying for winter. Temperatures here have been reasonable (nr Maidenhead, Berks). There are plenty of stores (3-4 frames), and what appears to be a reasonable amount of pollen (scattered throughout brood, but also a single area about a third of a one side of a deep brood frame).
Some history - this was a 6 frame nuc (national standard) that I received at the beginning of August, hived into a 14x12 body and I added 4 frames of 14x12 foundation. The colony seemed to be expanding well, but was not drawing out the foundation that quickly. After the first week of Apiguard my mentor visited for the first time and suggested feeding. I was reluctant to since they appeared to have plenty of stores at that time, 2 frames or so, but did want the foundation drawn to have as much laying space as possible, and did not want to refute my mentor's advice at his first visit. So I gave them around 5 litres of 1:1 sugar syrup. This did seem to stimulate drawing of the foundation, and a lot of the syrup seemed to end up in the new comb.
At last weeks inspection, since I was concerned about the declining brood levels I shook quite a lot of bees off the frames before inspecting and noticed a small amount of bald brood. From what I have read this is likely either genetic or wax moth larvae. The uncapped cells look to have the slight lip and so appear to have been uncapped by the bees which suggests wax moth, but I have not seen any, nor spent too long looking for them. All frames have bees on, the brood frames are well covered, the stores frame less so, but in my opinion it seemed a reasonably strong colony and the advice appeared to be in that case leave them to manage the wax moth larvae themselves.
At yesterday's inspection I counted about 50 bald brood, I get the impression that if it was genetic there would be more. I don't know for sure when the bald brood first started, but I didn't notice any when I transferred the nuc.
Yesterday their temperament seemed a little worse than normal. I didn't use smoke since I hadn't needed to until now. I did have the hive open for quite some time examining for any signs of brood (20 mins at least). The weather was overcast and a slight breeze, but about 19-20 degrees. Possibly more bees in the air than normal and more going for my head. Also two stings on the gloves for the first time, one on each thumb, but I was clumsy a few times when holding and turning frames as the gloves were getting quite propolised at that point. Also I had opened them up about 3 hours earlier, as it was dry and forecast was poor, but closed them up after inspecting 3 frames as it started raining. I can only try to imagine what a queenless roar is like from people's descriptions on here, but they didn't seem that way to me.
I think I have a reasonably good understanding of what my options are now. My thought was to leave until next weekend when the varroa treatment had finished and see if there was any brood. If not then try a stimulant feed, Nektapol or something similar. I am reluctant to feed sugar syrup as they are already starting to fill the brood area of previously brood holding frames - getting on for 6 frames now with syrup in the centre.
If she is still not laying a week later then try to find her, again I think I understand the various ways of doing this. If I don't find her, then try a test frame. I only have one colony but may be able to source once from my mentor or association.
Probably not worth speculating further about options until the result of the test frame.
What I would appreciate opinions on is If I do find her but she is still not laying, do I accept that she may have ceased for winter, or would it be expected that she would continue laying for a while longer? Is it too late to requeen now assuming I can source one?
The nuc was from Thorne, I don't know the strain nor the age of the queen, but I believe Thorne guarantee at most a one year old queen.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to try to provide plenty of detail and history.
Many thanks
Simon
As far as I can tell there is no uncapped brood. I have never yet been able to spot eggs, but saw no larvae also. I had noticed a decline in brood last Saturday (one week ago) but had read on here that varroa treatment can slow the queen down so put it down to that.
My conclusion then is that she stopped laying at least nine days ago, so prior to my last inspection. She is not marked and have never been able to spot her.
Is it too early for her to stop laying for winter. Temperatures here have been reasonable (nr Maidenhead, Berks). There are plenty of stores (3-4 frames), and what appears to be a reasonable amount of pollen (scattered throughout brood, but also a single area about a third of a one side of a deep brood frame).
Some history - this was a 6 frame nuc (national standard) that I received at the beginning of August, hived into a 14x12 body and I added 4 frames of 14x12 foundation. The colony seemed to be expanding well, but was not drawing out the foundation that quickly. After the first week of Apiguard my mentor visited for the first time and suggested feeding. I was reluctant to since they appeared to have plenty of stores at that time, 2 frames or so, but did want the foundation drawn to have as much laying space as possible, and did not want to refute my mentor's advice at his first visit. So I gave them around 5 litres of 1:1 sugar syrup. This did seem to stimulate drawing of the foundation, and a lot of the syrup seemed to end up in the new comb.
At last weeks inspection, since I was concerned about the declining brood levels I shook quite a lot of bees off the frames before inspecting and noticed a small amount of bald brood. From what I have read this is likely either genetic or wax moth larvae. The uncapped cells look to have the slight lip and so appear to have been uncapped by the bees which suggests wax moth, but I have not seen any, nor spent too long looking for them. All frames have bees on, the brood frames are well covered, the stores frame less so, but in my opinion it seemed a reasonably strong colony and the advice appeared to be in that case leave them to manage the wax moth larvae themselves.
At yesterday's inspection I counted about 50 bald brood, I get the impression that if it was genetic there would be more. I don't know for sure when the bald brood first started, but I didn't notice any when I transferred the nuc.
Yesterday their temperament seemed a little worse than normal. I didn't use smoke since I hadn't needed to until now. I did have the hive open for quite some time examining for any signs of brood (20 mins at least). The weather was overcast and a slight breeze, but about 19-20 degrees. Possibly more bees in the air than normal and more going for my head. Also two stings on the gloves for the first time, one on each thumb, but I was clumsy a few times when holding and turning frames as the gloves were getting quite propolised at that point. Also I had opened them up about 3 hours earlier, as it was dry and forecast was poor, but closed them up after inspecting 3 frames as it started raining. I can only try to imagine what a queenless roar is like from people's descriptions on here, but they didn't seem that way to me.
I think I have a reasonably good understanding of what my options are now. My thought was to leave until next weekend when the varroa treatment had finished and see if there was any brood. If not then try a stimulant feed, Nektapol or something similar. I am reluctant to feed sugar syrup as they are already starting to fill the brood area of previously brood holding frames - getting on for 6 frames now with syrup in the centre.
If she is still not laying a week later then try to find her, again I think I understand the various ways of doing this. If I don't find her, then try a test frame. I only have one colony but may be able to source once from my mentor or association.
Probably not worth speculating further about options until the result of the test frame.
What I would appreciate opinions on is If I do find her but she is still not laying, do I accept that she may have ceased for winter, or would it be expected that she would continue laying for a while longer? Is it too late to requeen now assuming I can source one?
The nuc was from Thorne, I don't know the strain nor the age of the queen, but I believe Thorne guarantee at most a one year old queen.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to try to provide plenty of detail and history.
Many thanks
Simon
