Day 13 of bailey change, QC found.

[Bakerbee]

Good morning all we would be very grateful of some advice. We are in the process of a bailey comb change on what was a very full hive. Brood in 8 frames. We found Q and placed her into new BB with the old frame she was on and with new frames also. We have been feeding 2 to 1 as the ORS was not out yet then switched to 1 to 1 as it came into full flower. Day 7 all ok frames on either side of queen drawn with eggs observed. Went to check today day 13 and 3 frames on either side now drawn and bias observed too. Alls well we thought but upon checking the old framethe queen was moved with we found 6 QC 2 fully capped. Weve removed them but are wondering what else we can do.. the queen is still present and 3 QC were made on the edges of the frames all hanging down as the others had been built off of the comb. We have a buckfast from exmoor ordered as had decided to requeen this spring anyway but the queen is not ready yet. We also plan to split this hive when theyre strong enough so we have the safety of 2 hives instead of just one. Do we just make regular checks and remove all QC found and carry on with our plans? Are we missing something we should be doing? Thanks all.

Jus and pete

 

[Beefriendly]

Why were you performing a Bailey Comb change in early spring?
Did they have nosema?

 

[maddydog]

Why were you performing a Bailey Comb change in early spring?
Did they have nosema?

Coz they read it on a forum and it sounded good

The bees are telling you they're strong enough to split so I'd perform an AS. Too late to add more space and continuously knocking down queen cells is not the answer.
Weather looks settled for a couple of weeks so I'd stop feeding them also.
You'll have your two colonies that you want and when the new Queen arrives you make the decision as to which way forwards.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The problem with knocking queen cells down is that the bees make more and eventually swarm before they are even capped. I would split the colony now. Nuc the queen with a couple of frames of capped brood some stores, lots of extra nurse bees and a drawn comb. Leave the big hive to requeen

 

[Bakerbee]

Just came home to find them preparing to swarm. Ive looked through the bottom old bb and there are no young enough eggs so am i correct to take queen out of the top bb n pop her into the one with no young eggs. And split the topp bb to create a new hive. The reason i did the bailey was the hive i aquired last autumn was very old. The frames kept breaking when trying to remove them for inspection and the comb was very old. I was advised on here last year to do the new hive/frame switch in early spring. I didnt want to loose the brood so thought a bailey comb change would be ok as spring is a little delayed this year.

 

[Bakerbee]

Forgot to say the weather changed and started raining during finding them trying to swarm. Theyve all gone back inside now. So plan suit suit up and split while theyre inside.

 

[Bakerbee]

Ok split done. I looked through both brood boxes before doing the split. As suspected 13 days in to bailey change and original box though teaming with nurse bees had no young enough eggs for creating a Q from. So ive found the Q and moved her back into orihinsl bb to start laying again, i popped a QE on the bottom to stop them trying to swarm again till Q start laying again. The top new bb had 3 frames of bias and 3 frames of drawn comb begining to fill with stores. So ive moved them into their new hive position. As their new position is near the original ive closed them up for a few days so if there are any flying workers in there they can reoriantate. Im sure ive made many mistakes which will be pointed out to me but i consider today a huge learning lesson with a very large dose of good luck and timing for the swarm to give up coz of the rain showers. Both hives have a large supply of bees covering at least 6 frames each and one has bias for them to raise a new queen while the other has emerging brood and the queen for laying to commence. Thoughts everyone?? Cheers.