LauraB
New Bee
My Hive 2 swarmed about 6 weeks ago (25th May), came home to see it happening but I think the Q must have got lost on the way out as they seemed to be coming back in as well as going out, no loss of bees when I went through it but def no Q (was marked) but QCs (non sealed thou).
Went through it 2 weeks ago, great I thought as I saw eggs however when I went through it again on sat it’s all drone brood! Nice pattern so I think it’s a DLQ but the interesting thing was we didn’t see any larvae and the other eggs we saw were haphazard across the comb (DLW?).
Do workers kill the Q if they realise she’s a drone layer?
And then promote themselves to become DLW?
In an attempt, on my mentors advice, to find Q we moved the brood box and super to one side, put a QEx on the floor then another brood box, with some frames in, QEx on top and a super box acting like a eke and ‘sieved’ the bees through but we couldn’t spot her, did kill a few that were acting like Q’s – had a court around that sort of thing, moved differently, but nothing that looked like a proper Q. Once that had settled down we put the frames back into the brood box with some frames with eggs on that my mentor has given me (would have used my other hive but that’s now Q- too (different story)!)
Did I do the right thing?
What are the chances that we’ve either found & killed the Q or that there wasn’t one in there in the 1st place?
How long do I leave it to see if there are QCs?
Or is it doomed to dwindle and even if she does get mated not be big enough to survive the winter (did have a 5 frame nuc that survived last winter thou!)
Help!
Laura
Went through it 2 weeks ago, great I thought as I saw eggs however when I went through it again on sat it’s all drone brood! Nice pattern so I think it’s a DLQ but the interesting thing was we didn’t see any larvae and the other eggs we saw were haphazard across the comb (DLW?).
Do workers kill the Q if they realise she’s a drone layer?
And then promote themselves to become DLW?
In an attempt, on my mentors advice, to find Q we moved the brood box and super to one side, put a QEx on the floor then another brood box, with some frames in, QEx on top and a super box acting like a eke and ‘sieved’ the bees through but we couldn’t spot her, did kill a few that were acting like Q’s – had a court around that sort of thing, moved differently, but nothing that looked like a proper Q. Once that had settled down we put the frames back into the brood box with some frames with eggs on that my mentor has given me (would have used my other hive but that’s now Q- too (different story)!)
Did I do the right thing?
What are the chances that we’ve either found & killed the Q or that there wasn’t one in there in the 1st place?
How long do I leave it to see if there are QCs?
Or is it doomed to dwindle and even if she does get mated not be big enough to survive the winter (did have a 5 frame nuc that survived last winter thou!)
Help!
Laura
