irishguy
Field Bee
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2012
- Messages
- 865
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- ireland
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 2 over wintered nucs
First day being able to check my hives in 13 days because of bad weather. After my inspection and first AS on my own, i walked away chuffed untill i got home and it hit me, i done it all up the left.
First up thou, checked my over wintered nuc, all going well and found the Q straight away and lifted her out, put her into my queen plunger for marking. Once marked i put her back onto the frame but noticed quite a few bees on top of her and was worried this might be them balling her. I quickly put her into a queen cage with hole covered with wax before they could kill her, covered hole then put bach in the hive hanging beside the brood area. Thinking behind this was the bees will keep her warm over night while getting scent back. Closed hive up and will be back in morning to let her loose.
Next up was my good hive with 2 supers. Noticed a capped QC on first brood frame and more on other frames, and a few charged Qcs. Lots of brood, eggs, larvae. I looked through all hive to find Queen but couldnt see her anywhere, which got me thinking shes swarmed! Also noticed first super wasnt full so moved 2nd super away. Closed up hive to work out what to do.
Opened up my other hive that was queenless 13 days ago which was left with a capped Qc. Capped Qc now opened so virgin Q on the loose. Closed hive up to check again on wed/thrus which hopefully there will be eggs. Have a QE and super on this hive but want to know, when(if) queen comes back mated, while she be able to fit through the QE seeing itll be just after mated.
Back to the good hive with the 2 supers. I gave this 10 mins thinking and decided to go in and cull all QCs and leave 1. Reason being, didn't see queen , no capped stores and all these QCS left in brood box so IMO, shes swarmed. Opened hive up, decided to go through it quickly again just incase i missed the Q and low and behold, there she is on first frame of brood! Put her into the queen plunger and marked with pen. Put her back on frame to see how bees took to her. Same thing happened to the other marked Q, they started climbing over her so back into the plunger.
This is where you lot with get the LOL's. i had a nuc box on stand by just incase. Took 1 frame of uncapped stores, 2 frames of brood with no Qcs and put in nuc box. Before i put brood frames into nuc, i shook all bees off the frames and into the nuc. Put plunger with marked Q in nuc and moved 8 meters to the left and shook the rest of the bees from top super from that hive into the nuc and closed up. Left main brood in same location with no queen, a capped QC and a charged QC to go back in 7 days and if capped QC is opened, cull the other one.
Got home and realised i didnt do that AS properly. Wasnt i supposed to leave the queen in same place with new brood box with frames, move the main brood box with all the bees,brood,eggs and capped/charged QCs to the new location a few meters away and then the flying bees will fly back to hive and nurse bees will stay with the brood etc.. and with a charged and capped QC.
So there you have it, another few LOL's from irish guy this season but im sure weve all been there at one stage with the ballsing up.
So in the morning, what i thik i should do is try and rectify my situation and put the main brood box in the nuc location and put the nuc frames back into a new brood box and put back in original location under the super. As for the both queens in a cage and plunger, open them up and hopefully there will be no more balling. As for when i do release the queens, whats the signs shell be ok, will she just wonder away like normal or is there always some sort of interaction from the bees ? Just thought id ask incase this isnt really balling and im worrying about nothing.
First up thou, checked my over wintered nuc, all going well and found the Q straight away and lifted her out, put her into my queen plunger for marking. Once marked i put her back onto the frame but noticed quite a few bees on top of her and was worried this might be them balling her. I quickly put her into a queen cage with hole covered with wax before they could kill her, covered hole then put bach in the hive hanging beside the brood area. Thinking behind this was the bees will keep her warm over night while getting scent back. Closed hive up and will be back in morning to let her loose.
Next up was my good hive with 2 supers. Noticed a capped QC on first brood frame and more on other frames, and a few charged Qcs. Lots of brood, eggs, larvae. I looked through all hive to find Queen but couldnt see her anywhere, which got me thinking shes swarmed! Also noticed first super wasnt full so moved 2nd super away. Closed up hive to work out what to do.
Opened up my other hive that was queenless 13 days ago which was left with a capped Qc. Capped Qc now opened so virgin Q on the loose. Closed hive up to check again on wed/thrus which hopefully there will be eggs. Have a QE and super on this hive but want to know, when(if) queen comes back mated, while she be able to fit through the QE seeing itll be just after mated.
Back to the good hive with the 2 supers. I gave this 10 mins thinking and decided to go in and cull all QCs and leave 1. Reason being, didn't see queen , no capped stores and all these QCS left in brood box so IMO, shes swarmed. Opened hive up, decided to go through it quickly again just incase i missed the Q and low and behold, there she is on first frame of brood! Put her into the queen plunger and marked with pen. Put her back on frame to see how bees took to her. Same thing happened to the other marked Q, they started climbing over her so back into the plunger.
This is where you lot with get the LOL's. i had a nuc box on stand by just incase. Took 1 frame of uncapped stores, 2 frames of brood with no Qcs and put in nuc box. Before i put brood frames into nuc, i shook all bees off the frames and into the nuc. Put plunger with marked Q in nuc and moved 8 meters to the left and shook the rest of the bees from top super from that hive into the nuc and closed up. Left main brood in same location with no queen, a capped QC and a charged QC to go back in 7 days and if capped QC is opened, cull the other one.
Got home and realised i didnt do that AS properly. Wasnt i supposed to leave the queen in same place with new brood box with frames, move the main brood box with all the bees,brood,eggs and capped/charged QCs to the new location a few meters away and then the flying bees will fly back to hive and nurse bees will stay with the brood etc.. and with a charged and capped QC.
So there you have it, another few LOL's from irish guy this season but im sure weve all been there at one stage with the ballsing up.
So in the morning, what i thik i should do is try and rectify my situation and put the main brood box in the nuc location and put the nuc frames back into a new brood box and put back in original location under the super. As for the both queens in a cage and plunger, open them up and hopefully there will be no more balling. As for when i do release the queens, whats the signs shell be ok, will she just wonder away like normal or is there always some sort of interaction from the bees ? Just thought id ask incase this isnt really balling and im worrying about nothing.
