- Joined
- Feb 24, 2011
- Messages
- 1,562
- Reaction score
- 26
- Location
- near King's Lynn
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 50+. Double Std National & 14x12
I had a 14 x 12 hive that was queenless 2 weeks ago and had been since doing an AS leaving a loaded cell 5 weeks previous. The original queen was laying in her new home so a simple unite was in order.
Duly done the newspaper job and put the Q- brood on top of the 2 supers on the original brood, newspaper held down with QE. Last week I went to remove the top brood but it was stuffed with bees and stores and the weather wasnt great so I added a crown board under it and left one hole open so they would take the stores down into the hive, I left the QE in place from the unite.........lazy.
So today I thought I would nip over and whip the top brood away and do a full inspection of the bottom brood to see how the old queen was getting on and check for swarm or supercedeure cells. Found 3 cells, supercedeure I think, on 3 seperate frames but were all torn down. Only brood I had was capped so checked through twice and no sign of her. Bugger sprang to mind, surely not swarmed..........
Replaced the supers and started to go through the top brood to shake the bees out..............brood ! in all stages !....... what.........then she looms into view like a big amber coloured cruise ship coming out of the fog, workers in her wake and she was pulling a big draught.......... what a beauty, a queen fit to grace any hive. She is now sporting a bright yellow back pack.
5 frames of brood, lovely.
So moved her and her frame into the bottom box (no problems), QE, 2 supers then brood box ontop of another crown board with both holes open. Hoping this will allow the brood to hatch and the stores to be taken down. Double brood may of been a better option but just happy right now to have a new queen.
So got that one wrong, too quick to say queenless........... guess I wont be the only one to have done that this year. Should of used a test frame eh ?
Lucky Pete D
Duly done the newspaper job and put the Q- brood on top of the 2 supers on the original brood, newspaper held down with QE. Last week I went to remove the top brood but it was stuffed with bees and stores and the weather wasnt great so I added a crown board under it and left one hole open so they would take the stores down into the hive, I left the QE in place from the unite.........lazy.
So today I thought I would nip over and whip the top brood away and do a full inspection of the bottom brood to see how the old queen was getting on and check for swarm or supercedeure cells. Found 3 cells, supercedeure I think, on 3 seperate frames but were all torn down. Only brood I had was capped so checked through twice and no sign of her. Bugger sprang to mind, surely not swarmed..........
Replaced the supers and started to go through the top brood to shake the bees out..............brood ! in all stages !....... what.........then she looms into view like a big amber coloured cruise ship coming out of the fog, workers in her wake and she was pulling a big draught.......... what a beauty, a queen fit to grace any hive. She is now sporting a bright yellow back pack.
5 frames of brood, lovely.
So moved her and her frame into the bottom box (no problems), QE, 2 supers then brood box ontop of another crown board with both holes open. Hoping this will allow the brood to hatch and the stores to be taken down. Double brood may of been a better option but just happy right now to have a new queen.
So got that one wrong, too quick to say queenless........... guess I wont be the only one to have done that this year. Should of used a test frame eh ?
Lucky Pete D
