Don't despair

[garlicpickle]

If she is laying worker brood as well then....... She ain't just a drone layer! What percentage of drones to worker brood? I have a queen who has laid a couple of frames of drones this year but she also lays lots of workers and they are my best nectar collecting hive!

I should have taken pics, but normally I expect to see drone brood in "clumps" either up near the top of the frames or in wild comb added to the bottom of frames. I would say about half and half. It is dotted around seeingly randomly although as I said, there was some worker brood mixed in too. It's the A/S part of the Snelgrove (old queen, foragers and mostly foundation). The queen is 2013. I found her when I did the A/S and tried to catch her to renew her red marking which had almost rubbed off. Unfortunately I bodged it and she wiggled out from under the cage. I'm wondering if she got damaged as her laying pattern was "textbook" before that.

The part above the board was given a QC at the time of the split. This has now emerged (around 3 weeks ago) but there is still no sign of eggs or even any preparation such as polishing cells, so I am wondering if she got lost on her mating flight or something.

I do have another colony so if this Q is gradually failing I still have the option of raising a new one. Ideally I just want somebody more knowledgeable to have a look even if all they do is tell me it looks fine and i should stop worrying.

 

[beecology]

"Nice post! A refreshing change from some of the sneering sarcasm and patronising superiority ladled out by 5]certain 'experts' on this forum, who sadly tend to be the most prolific posters."

Spot on.

Totally agree, Enrico and a few others are really helpful and keen to pass on their experience and offer advice. Just what newcomers need.

A few others appear to believe in their own hype and it obviously pains them to converse with common decency. This begs the question, why do they post at all - craving attention perhaps? lonely?

 

[enrico]

Its nice to get some reassurance that even experienced beekeepers don't get it right all the time.
Hope you can help me take the right action folks - my hive swarmed about 3 weeks ago, saw them but they were too high up tree to get down and wrapped around trunk, they departed the day after they emerged.

Found 6 queen cells in hive so split the hive into 3 with 2 queen cells each and divided up the brood and stores between them. Up to now lots of bees and no sign of brood - should I be patient and see what happens.

Four days ago a swarm arrived around 11 am one morning and there was lots of fighting outside the hive that swarmed - did the swarm change its mind??

After 2 days no sign of swarm moving on so managed to put them in a nuc only to have them swarm on to another tree. Another 2 days and no sign of them going, and still fighting, so this time waited until evening and managed to get them all into a brood box with queen excluder on bottom. They are still there, have drawn a little comb but mainly clustered on front inside of brood box.

Problem is if this swarm queen is my only one do I take off queen excluder and take a chance they will swarm again or wait longer to see if they make an effort to settle in. I would have thought queen would have had chance to mate while hanging about in the tree but maybe I'm wrong.

Hope someone can help me make sense of this.
Thanks in advance

Chez bee, I know you have gone to the trouble of typing this all out but can you copy and paste it on to a new thread. It is worthy of reading and for others to make comments. You sound as though you need some advice!
Enrico

 

[enrico]

Totally agree, Enrico and a few others are really helpful and keen to pass on their experience and offer advice. Just what newcomers need.

A few others appear to believe in their own hype and it obviously pains them to converse with common decency. This begs the question, why do they post at all - craving attention perhaps? lonely?

Sorry you feel that way about some of the replies beecology, everybody means well, it is just that some are far more knowledgable about the subject and it sometimes comes across as pompous! I always say, if you want guess work then listen to me but if you want facts then listen to someone like RAB.
Many of us keep bees for different reasons too so you will get different answers from a professional with 100 plus hives than from a 'I just keep bees for the good of the bees' type of person. Hope that makes sense and that you feel that at least you get answers to your problems!
E

 

[beecology]

Sorry you feel that way about some of the replies beecology, everybody means well, it is just that some are far more knowledgable about the subject and it sometimes comes across as pompous! I always say, if you want guess work then listen to me but if you want facts then listen to someone like RAB.
Many of us keep bees for different reasons too so you will get different answers from a professional with 100 plus hives than from a 'I just keep bees for the good of the bees' type of person. Hope that makes sense and that you feel that at least you get answers to your problems!
E

I have found your advice and opinions to always be helpful and informed. Its not always about the content, its the delivery and just general decency. If knowledge and facts have to come tainted by RAB's superiority complex, then myself and many others would rather he kept them to himself, but then how would he self indulge?

Thanks again enrico

 

[chezbee]

Chez bee, I know you have gone to the trouble of typing this all out but can you copy and paste it on to a new thread. It is worthy of reading and for others to make comments. You sound as though you need some advice!
Enrico

Thanks Enrico
Things are looking up. I removed queen excluder and the bees have settled down. All colonies are now being visited by drones in and out of each hive, even the swarm, so I am taking that as a good sign that there are virgin queens in hive and weather permitting they will mate soon.