Well i have a split with a very nice virgin queen now, i had a few surplus which i had no need or room for so i had to remove them.
Here's a picture of one of the virgin queens produced. Fingers crossed this bank holiday weekend the weather will be nice enough for her to get out and mate *fingers crossed*.
I'm holding back for a bit until theres a few more drones about, got to start soon though as my mini plus hives are mostly stacked three high and filling up quick, I may even need to shake a few bees from them to hold them back a bit before splitting.
Same here, only been through hives once and they have only just started drones so going to be a few weeks yet. I also want to save my efforts so that we have warm weather that Queens can get mated. I only produce my own for myself so want to make the best I can
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ahh dont be scaring me please. first inspections are yet to be done let alone queen rearing. i have checked the largest to see how progress is. very little sign of drone brood yet even less of them making for the door.
West of Ireland mind you. Coastal to boot.
Just got some queen cells for my incubator. Donated to me from good colony so will grab first decent one for my one queenless colony.
I looked at it yesterday and cannot see the queen that should have hatched 2 weeks ago, but I will wait a little longer. May need to shake them in 2 weeks to be sure.
But I have 7 apideas ready to go to rear these queens. The fun is starting.
made up 18 mini nucs yesterday and added cells today,must have grafted an older larvae as 1 had hatched and another was ready to emerge.the hive needed a virgin Q anyway as they swarmed through the grafted cells.queen was clipped so she is in a nuc.didnt want to lose her as she is doing really well.
Did the first few grafts of the season earlier today, so it begins again...mini nucs also need splitting very soon, they are starting to hang outside the boxes.