Excited about tomorrow

[Moel]

Been away working for a week and went down to take a glance at the hives.
Pollen piling into my new nuc this evening.
I'm hoping all this pollen means the queen that I hope has emerged from the queen cell has mated and is laying.
Opening up tomorrow to find out.

 

[beeno]

Fingers crossed!

 

[Millet]

You hopefully have better luck than me but i have nuc's also with bees piling pollen in, the nuc's had one Queen cell each seven days ago but now they have/had three each, now back to one each so we will see..

 

[Moel]

Didn't go to plan!
Got to hives, big swarm in neighbouring damson tree.
Open first hive - no queen cells 7 days ago, 12 or so now, plenty sealed.
No queen present - knocked down all but one queen cell.
On to nuc - no queen, no eggs, no sealed brood - no hope.....
Finally Caught the swarm which I assume is from the hive with all the queen cells and tipped into new hive this evening....

Will check queenless hive for any emergency cells in a few days....fingers crossed it will turn out ok......

Moel

 

[mickbees23]

You hopefully have better luck than me but i have nuc's also with bees piling pollen in, the nuc's had one Queen cell each seven days ago but now they have/had three each, now back to one each so we will see..

If these are splits with no queen then they are going to throw up emergency queen cells like mad. They won't be able to raise any more after 7 days so you should be ok.

1 brood frame is all you need + a frame containing pollen the rest I just use foundation and stick a feeder on. They can only use the spare time to draw them out ready for the new queen to start laying so you only need check 1 frame for queen cells.

Cheers, Mick.

 

[mickbees23]

Didn't go to plan!
On to nuc - no queen, no eggs, no sealed brood - no hope.....
Will check queenless hive for any emergency cells in a few days....fingers crossed it will turn out ok......
Moel

When you say no queen, had the queen cell emerged..? If so what has the time span been, you need to keep a good check on dates as 2 weeks feels like 4 when you are waiting for a queen to come into lay. Virgins are the scarlet pimpernel of the beekeeping world and beeks worry far too much about them getting mated in my opinion. They are pretty good at producing laying queens in the long run

Cheers, Mick.

 

[mbc]

When you say no queen, had the queen cell emerged..? If so what has the time span been, you need to keep a good check on dates as 2 weeks feels like 4 when you are waiting for a queen to come into lay. Virgins are the scarlet pimpernel of the beekeeping world and beeks worry far too much about them getting mated in my opinion. They are pretty good at producing laying queens in the long run

Cheers, Mick.

I agree, I've trained myself not to check for laying for a good three weeks after emergence otherwise it can be a bit of a wasted exercise.

 

[enrico]

When you say no queen, had the queen cell emerged..? If so what has the time span been, you need to keep a good check on dates as 2 weeks feels like 4 when you are waiting for a queen to come into lay. Virgins are the scarlet pimpernel of the beekeeping world and beeks worry far too much about them getting mated in my opinion. They are pretty good at producing laying queens in the long run

Cheers, Mick.

Good advice.....like it!
E

 

[beeno]

As above. No capped brood and no eggs means that you may have a virgin in there or you may be -Q. Usually it is the former. At the earliest a mated queen will start laying 10 days after emergence. What's your time line?

P.S. Well done for getting the swarm!

 

[pargyle]

Good advice.....like it!
E

Yeh ... queens are a law unto themselves ...I've had one colony that came through winter but was very small ... a month ago - very small patch of brood.. three weeks ago ... no better. Was considering re-queening but as little chance of swarming left them be and just watched landing board...siuddenly, yesterday, more bees coming and going than I thought possible from this little colony . Had a look in - five frames of BIAS ... she must have got the hint of the gatepost !

Colony next to it has been throbbing with bees since March and wall to wall brood - no queen cells as yet but only a matter of time the way they are going. Well prepared with enough kit to cope this year.

You just can't tell ... but patience is nearly always the answer where queens are concerned.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Been away working for a week and went down to take a glance at the hives.
Pollen piling into my new nuc this evening.
I'm hoping all this pollen means the queen that I hope has emerged from the queen cell has mated and is laying.
Opening up tomorrow to find out.

How many days into your week of absence did you expect the queen to emerge from her cell?
I suspect you're being a bit impatient in hoping she's emerged and been out for repeated mating and will have started laying.

 

[Moel]

Yep
Probably being a bit rushed on my part
12 days from hatching
So guess I'll leave it another couple of weeks before disturbing again.

The hived swarm is still there today with lots on traffic and orientation flights going on.

Some good news though - in that another of my top bar hives has made a stupid amount of honey, 8 bars of brood and 6 of honey - 4 capped - stole one from them, need to weigh it but it's a lot of cut comb from a single bar!

Thanks for the advice

Moel

 

[Beefriendly]

but it's a lot of cut comb from a single bar!

Aye...but if it's from OSR it will be set solid shortly. The good news is some like it that way.

 

[Moel]

Aye...but if it's from OSR it will be set solid shortly. The good news is some like it that way.

No OSR for miles here - nearest is probably 5 or 6 miles to the nearest field with a fairly chunky mountain in the way....

 

[Beefriendly]

No OSR for miles here - nearest is probably 5 or 6 miles to the nearest field with a fairly chunky mountain in the way....

Excellent....a rare beast is non OSR spring honey. Enjoy or sell very expensively.

 

[Moel]

Thanks
It's the first honey I've had - 1st year last year - left both original hives honey alone last year and they had munched the lot plus a couple of kilos of fondant by the end of the snow.

Keeping this for family and as presents for a few special neighbours who have been amazing friends since we moved here - it tastes sublime - sweet, light, clean and like meadow flowers.....kids can't stop dipping spoons into the 'trimmings pot!

 

[beeno]

Sounds idyllic.

 

[Moel]

Update
The hived prime swarm has stayed put and at its first inspection today had drawn 8 top bars of comb, queen present, most bars have eggs, larvae and sealed brood.
The hive the swarm came from, I left with 1 sealed queen cell, this has emerged, but didn't see her as i went through the hive, guess I wait 3 weeks cross my fingers and look again for eggs/brood ect......