first inspection due -preparation needed

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beefaye

New Bee
Joined
Sep 1, 2012
Messages
20
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0
Location
central scotland
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3
hiya

received two new nucs last week and doing my first inspection tomorrow

when I was transferring the frames, I noticed the first nuc had some chalk brood. I didn't worry about this much due to the wet Spring we had and the fact they were now being placed in a well ventilated South facing hive. When feeding them throughout the last week, I have seen a lot of chalk debris on the mesh floor. I am assuming they will clear this out when I remove the entrance reducer in a few weeks time.

The second nuc is the one worrying me. All frames were gorgeous with brood, stores and dripping with honey and a lovely laying queen. However, a big fat queen cell is on the base of one of the frames. The keeper that provided the nuc is one of the most experienced keepers in the area but did admit that he hadn't spotted this cell when preparing the nuc for me. He is confident it is a dummy cell. I will find out either way tomorrow.

I would like some hints & tips to prepare myself just in case the cell did contain a queen. If a queen has emerged, I will look for my existing healthy queen then find the new queen. If they are both there, I can simply remove the new queen. What should I do if I can't find the existing queen? Should I close up the hive and let the virgin queen mate & lay or should I remove her and ask the supplier for a new queen?

I basically need guidance on what to look out for & what I should consider so that I can be prepared for any eventuality.
 
I,m a novice myself but i recon if the queen cell has hatched your nuc could have swarmed or a swarm is imminent the first chink of sun.
If you see new eggs i recon it should be ok. and leave alone.
I think its best not to tamper too much.
 
hiya

received two new nucs last week and doing my first inspection tomorrow

when I was transferring the frames, I noticed the first nuc had some chalk brood. I didn't worry about this much due to the wet Spring we had and the fact they were now being placed in a well ventilated South facing hive. When feeding them throughout the last week, I have seen a lot of chalk debris on the mesh floor. I am assuming they will clear this out when I remove the entrance reducer in a few weeks time.

The second nuc is the one worrying me. All frames were gorgeous with brood, stores and dripping with honey and a lovely laying queen. However, a big fat queen cell is on the base of one of the frames. The keeper that provided the nuc is one of the most experienced keepers in the area but did admit that he hadn't spotted this cell when preparing the nuc for me. He is confident it is a dummy cell. I will find out either way tomorrow.

I would like some hints & tips to prepare myself just in case the cell did contain a queen. If a queen has emerged, I will look for my existing healthy queen then find the new queen. If they are both there, I can simply remove the new queen. What should I do if I can't find the existing queen? Should I close up the hive and let the virgin queen mate & lay or should I remove her and ask the supplier for a new queen?

I basically need guidance on what to look out for & what I should consider so that I can be prepared for any eventuality.

Was the queen cell open or closed? If it was open did it contain anything or was it just a play cell?
 
If you can't find the marked queen I would not remove the virgin, but ask the supplier to sort it out with a replacement mated queen or preferably, replacement nuc.


.
 
Skyhook is on the money. If you manage to get a mess and a virgin queen , you would lose more than a month of development and have a qyueen of unknown providence - she could even be a vile, evil one! You cannot cross your bridges until you get to them, so a decent inspection should be done to ascertain the current situation. Just be prepared for that.
 
opened the hive with the queen cell this afternoon and my supplier was correct...it was a dummy sealed cell. Workers had torn it down by the time I inspected today and my queen is happily laying without a worry in the world.

the other hive still has chalk brood on one frame and dead bees stuck in their cells ... the colony has cleared out most onto the mesh floor so fingers crossed their housekeeping will be done by the next time I check.

I have now stopped worrying about what I would find on first inspection and now moved on to what I will find on second inspection....the glory of beekeeping....worry, worry & worry again.

thanks for all your advice...learned loads from my last two years of watching this forum alongside all my other training
 

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