RoseCottage
Field Bee
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2009
- Messages
- 718
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Near Andover, UK
- Hive Type
- WBC
- Number of Hives
- From 5 to 2 and hopefully a better year
Richard's comments:
I reiterate my suggestion you mark the Q asap because, as the weeks go by the hive becomes more and more full of bees which makes her ever harder to find.
It's not important that you can find her now but it will be imperative in a month or so if you want to do 'artificial swarming' - which is what most domestic beekeepers do. The hive will be seething with bees and you will be so glad that you only have to look for a speck of white!!! Trust me!
Most people who read my posts know that they come in a small range of styles -naive questions, comedic peace making responses, occasionally considered suggestions. I always try and avoid direct adverse comment to people who have taken the time to post their thoughts, nearly always with the intent to help someone out. They don't have to make the effort and so should be afforded gratitude and thanks for their efforts.
So I have been reading this thread during the day and have believed that nearly all comments have been made in good faith. There have been a number of useful suggestions - Rab, Richard, and others...even my own perhaps.
I firmly believe that whatever opinion Louise forms will now be based upon careful consideration of a lot more source information and experience from a range of beekeepers. The purpose of the post has surely been achieved.
I hardly need to write a word on the thread, but I have been surprised by the comment above.
I find it probably a little too alarmist. I have felt compelled to balance the statements above with a little pinch of salt.
Yes the hives will increase in numbers and yes it is helpful (but I doubt imperative) to have a marked queen during the execution of an A/S but it is not essential.
I consider myself a beginner (and at the moment I am suffering a difficult start to my third year) but I recognise that there are very few circumstances when I need to locate the queen that I cannot do so.
Having a marked queen is useful but I can also use my very basic understanding of the bee's behaviour to locate likely areas to search her out. I can usually rule out outer BB frames holding just stores, I can identify where the bees are most concentrated on remaining frames as her likely haunt, I can divide the frames as described previously and locate her (she may be on fallen comb at the bottom of a hive but I can also work this out by eliminating her presence on frames logically). So there are ways and means which do not cause any substantial inconvenience to me or the bees.
If Louise chooses to execute an A/S then there will be many bees in the hive but it need not be seething (choosing the right time of day to inspect the colony, the judicious deployment of more super space and the removal of these and their bees at inspection time both help to reduce the numbers).
Even during an A/S there are signs of whether the queen has been transferred successfully. It is possible to inpsect the new hive and also to watch the behaviour of the bees again -do they stay in the hive, do they start to drift back to the original one?
So I feel that the seething and imperative descriptors were overstating things a little.
So when is the best time for Louise to act on marking the queen?
That depends on Louise's own circumstances and also motivations. Perhaps this is the best time because the weather is good in her area, she is confident of her ability to minimise disruption to the early spring colony, confident of minimising risk to the new laying queen from workers rejecting her newly odourised and painted body. Perhaps she has enough new bees and strength in the colony that should she lose the queen (by accidental death or colony rejection regicide) her colonies will recover at this early part of the season without risk. Perhaps Louise feels she needs to do this for her own comfort factor or for part of her yearly beekeeping plan. All valid reasons.
I would observe that I think some people on the thread, with far more experience than I, have noted that they consider the risks at this time of year to be higher than they need to be to the developing colony. I tend to agree that from what Louise has written it is likely that another 4-6 weeks need not present Louise with any concerns that she has created a problem or let herself or her bees down. To be honest I imagine any time is OK once she has confidence in her marking skills and that her colonies are able to recover from any unexpected disaster. If she has more than one strong colony she could stagger the marking process so that she can always introduce a test frame (if needed) to help recover from any setback caused by unlucky marking.
Last year we marked our queens (one poorly marked queen in a new Th orne's sourced colony and one supercedure daughter) in August. We went through most of the summer with very strong hives but had no difficulty locating our unmarked or invisibly marked queens.
Louise, whatever you choose to do, you should have plenty of information...my final contribution to this thread is to suggest to you that time is on your side, the pressure is low, locating your queens is easy enough, and marking them is a lot easier with practice.
When you feel you know the right moment for the bees and you then go for it and enjoy it - Its a little like the Golden Shot but you are Bernie the Bolt.
All the best,
Sam
I reiterate my suggestion you mark the Q asap because, as the weeks go by the hive becomes more and more full of bees which makes her ever harder to find.
It's not important that you can find her now but it will be imperative in a month or so if you want to do 'artificial swarming' - which is what most domestic beekeepers do. The hive will be seething with bees and you will be so glad that you only have to look for a speck of white!!! Trust me!
Most people who read my posts know that they come in a small range of styles -naive questions, comedic peace making responses, occasionally considered suggestions. I always try and avoid direct adverse comment to people who have taken the time to post their thoughts, nearly always with the intent to help someone out. They don't have to make the effort and so should be afforded gratitude and thanks for their efforts.
So I have been reading this thread during the day and have believed that nearly all comments have been made in good faith. There have been a number of useful suggestions - Rab, Richard, and others...even my own perhaps.
I firmly believe that whatever opinion Louise forms will now be based upon careful consideration of a lot more source information and experience from a range of beekeepers. The purpose of the post has surely been achieved.
I hardly need to write a word on the thread, but I have been surprised by the comment above.
I find it probably a little too alarmist. I have felt compelled to balance the statements above with a little pinch of salt.
Yes the hives will increase in numbers and yes it is helpful (but I doubt imperative) to have a marked queen during the execution of an A/S but it is not essential.
I consider myself a beginner (and at the moment I am suffering a difficult start to my third year) but I recognise that there are very few circumstances when I need to locate the queen that I cannot do so.
Having a marked queen is useful but I can also use my very basic understanding of the bee's behaviour to locate likely areas to search her out. I can usually rule out outer BB frames holding just stores, I can identify where the bees are most concentrated on remaining frames as her likely haunt, I can divide the frames as described previously and locate her (she may be on fallen comb at the bottom of a hive but I can also work this out by eliminating her presence on frames logically). So there are ways and means which do not cause any substantial inconvenience to me or the bees.
If Louise chooses to execute an A/S then there will be many bees in the hive but it need not be seething (choosing the right time of day to inspect the colony, the judicious deployment of more super space and the removal of these and their bees at inspection time both help to reduce the numbers).
Even during an A/S there are signs of whether the queen has been transferred successfully. It is possible to inpsect the new hive and also to watch the behaviour of the bees again -do they stay in the hive, do they start to drift back to the original one?
So I feel that the seething and imperative descriptors were overstating things a little.
So when is the best time for Louise to act on marking the queen?
That depends on Louise's own circumstances and also motivations. Perhaps this is the best time because the weather is good in her area, she is confident of her ability to minimise disruption to the early spring colony, confident of minimising risk to the new laying queen from workers rejecting her newly odourised and painted body. Perhaps she has enough new bees and strength in the colony that should she lose the queen (by accidental death or colony rejection regicide) her colonies will recover at this early part of the season without risk. Perhaps Louise feels she needs to do this for her own comfort factor or for part of her yearly beekeeping plan. All valid reasons.
I would observe that I think some people on the thread, with far more experience than I, have noted that they consider the risks at this time of year to be higher than they need to be to the developing colony. I tend to agree that from what Louise has written it is likely that another 4-6 weeks need not present Louise with any concerns that she has created a problem or let herself or her bees down. To be honest I imagine any time is OK once she has confidence in her marking skills and that her colonies are able to recover from any unexpected disaster. If she has more than one strong colony she could stagger the marking process so that she can always introduce a test frame (if needed) to help recover from any setback caused by unlucky marking.
Last year we marked our queens (one poorly marked queen in a new Th orne's sourced colony and one supercedure daughter) in August. We went through most of the summer with very strong hives but had no difficulty locating our unmarked or invisibly marked queens.
Louise, whatever you choose to do, you should have plenty of information...my final contribution to this thread is to suggest to you that time is on your side, the pressure is low, locating your queens is easy enough, and marking them is a lot easier with practice.
When you feel you know the right moment for the bees and you then go for it and enjoy it - Its a little like the Golden Shot but you are Bernie the Bolt.
All the best,
Sam
