Rachelw
New Bee
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 28
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Wakefield
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 1 colony from last year and 1 swarm I caught in May
Hello all.
Today I planned to find and mark the queen in the swarm I hived last month.
It's my second year of bee keeping so am still near the bottom of the learning curve so am not always sure if what I am seeing is OK.
Anyway, the swarm when I caught was only fairly small and I think it was headed by a virgin queen. After a couple of weeks I saw eggs and they have quickly expanded to brood on 6 frames.
Last Thursday inspected them and all seemed well - eggs, larvae and sealed brood and 3 frames of nectar/honey. I didn't see the queen but as there were eggs didn't worry too much.
I treat them with Api Var Life when I first hived them and Varroa drop over the last 7 days is 32 mites, which I think is OK, but I thought it was probably a good idea to put in a shallow frame to trap some mites in drone brood.
Today I decided to make a determined effort to find and mark my queen before the hive is too full of bees. I was a little worried when I open the hive as they seem alot more agitated than they have been. Until now they have been very placid, hardly coming out of the hive during inspection. But today they were very buzzy and several stung my gloves.
More worrying - I didn't see any eggs and there were 2 two empty queen cups. No sign of the queen!
Don't panic I told myself - I'll close up the hive and go and get some advise from the forum. As I replaced the queen excluder what did I find? Yes the Queen! I think she must have been on it on Thursday and I put it back on with her on the wrong side! So I quickly marked her and put her back in the hive.
My questions now are
1. Will being the wrong side of the queen excluder for 3 days have harmed her?
2. What do I do about the queen cups?
I must admit it has taught me a lesson - check the exluder as I remove it and when replacing it. I've also realised that I don't actually need an excluder on at the moment.
Any advice welcome. Thank you in advance!
Rachel
Today I planned to find and mark the queen in the swarm I hived last month.
It's my second year of bee keeping so am still near the bottom of the learning curve so am not always sure if what I am seeing is OK.
Anyway, the swarm when I caught was only fairly small and I think it was headed by a virgin queen. After a couple of weeks I saw eggs and they have quickly expanded to brood on 6 frames.
Last Thursday inspected them and all seemed well - eggs, larvae and sealed brood and 3 frames of nectar/honey. I didn't see the queen but as there were eggs didn't worry too much.
I treat them with Api Var Life when I first hived them and Varroa drop over the last 7 days is 32 mites, which I think is OK, but I thought it was probably a good idea to put in a shallow frame to trap some mites in drone brood.
Today I decided to make a determined effort to find and mark my queen before the hive is too full of bees. I was a little worried when I open the hive as they seem alot more agitated than they have been. Until now they have been very placid, hardly coming out of the hive during inspection. But today they were very buzzy and several stung my gloves.
More worrying - I didn't see any eggs and there were 2 two empty queen cups. No sign of the queen!
Don't panic I told myself - I'll close up the hive and go and get some advise from the forum. As I replaced the queen excluder what did I find? Yes the Queen! I think she must have been on it on Thursday and I put it back on with her on the wrong side! So I quickly marked her and put her back in the hive.
My questions now are
1. Will being the wrong side of the queen excluder for 3 days have harmed her?
2. What do I do about the queen cups?
I must admit it has taught me a lesson - check the exluder as I remove it and when replacing it. I've also realised that I don't actually need an excluder on at the moment.
Any advice welcome. Thank you in advance!
Rachel
