Curley
House Bee
- Joined
- May 29, 2014
- Messages
- 364
- Reaction score
- 7
- Location
- Wilts
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 8
Hi
First year novice beekeeper with two small colonies.
One from a cast swarm (a bit less that 2 pints of bees) on May Bank holiday weekend put in a nuc box with foundation only. Bees drawing wax, making stores bringing in pollen and polishing cells but queen not seen yet and no eggs or brood. They do seem busy and happy though.
The other colony was made up from a friends swarmed but still large colony on Easter Monday. It was made up with 2 frames of brood two queen cells one capped, 2 of food and 2 of foundation a . This is now in a national brood box. (The cast needed a home!) The two cells brought in were ignored/never developed an they made a good big queen cell slap bang in the middle of a sheet of foundation plus a couple of small ones which I removed. The queen emerged and I saw her. However due to bad luck/ineptitude I think this colony is now queenless .
My reasons for thinking this are:
I haven't seen the queen again, all the brood has hatched, the colony appears to be shrinking but then I guess it would at first. There are no eggs or brood except drone brood - some open so coming from somewhere and there are a lot of drones. Although there are only 2 frames of bees they seem quite stroppy compared with how they initially were.
It seems to me that this is a queenless colony gone to drone laying workers or another possibility is that I have drone laying queen. Is there a way of telling without seeing the queen? I know I would have to find her and remove in order to requeen or unite.
My plan was to have two colonies to go into winter with but happy to unite these into one for my first year if that will get me through the problem.
Any suggestions about what my next steps should be?
Any advice or suggestions would be gratefully received.
First year novice beekeeper with two small colonies.
One from a cast swarm (a bit less that 2 pints of bees) on May Bank holiday weekend put in a nuc box with foundation only. Bees drawing wax, making stores bringing in pollen and polishing cells but queen not seen yet and no eggs or brood. They do seem busy and happy though.
The other colony was made up from a friends swarmed but still large colony on Easter Monday. It was made up with 2 frames of brood two queen cells one capped, 2 of food and 2 of foundation a . This is now in a national brood box. (The cast needed a home!) The two cells brought in were ignored/never developed an they made a good big queen cell slap bang in the middle of a sheet of foundation plus a couple of small ones which I removed. The queen emerged and I saw her. However due to bad luck/ineptitude I think this colony is now queenless .
My reasons for thinking this are:
I haven't seen the queen again, all the brood has hatched, the colony appears to be shrinking but then I guess it would at first. There are no eggs or brood except drone brood - some open so coming from somewhere and there are a lot of drones. Although there are only 2 frames of bees they seem quite stroppy compared with how they initially were.
It seems to me that this is a queenless colony gone to drone laying workers or another possibility is that I have drone laying queen. Is there a way of telling without seeing the queen? I know I would have to find her and remove in order to requeen or unite.
My plan was to have two colonies to go into winter with but happy to unite these into one for my first year if that will get me through the problem.
Any suggestions about what my next steps should be?
Any advice or suggestions would be gratefully received.