have i done wrong?

[pjb1972]

Hi all after last weeks inspection my mentor and i found quite a few q cells so he was going to come round by wednesday this week to help me do an artificial swarm anyway knowing hes really busy i decided to do it myself following my haynes bee manual page 89 nucleus method i followed it to the instructions and felt really proud so this afternoon he says i can help tonight typicali say happily ive done it to the reply of oh no you have done it all wrong now i feel terrible like ive let him and the bees down please some one assure me it will be ok

 

[Millet]

For every mistake you make you have thousands of bees that will hopefully fix it for you.

 

[pjb1972]

Thanks

 

[Millet]

If you explain exactly what procedure you did they is quite a few clever folk on here who will point you in the right direction if need be.

 

[pjb1972]

If you explain exactly what procedure you did they is quite a few clever folk on here who will point you in the right direction if need be.

Basically took the queen out of hive on a frame put into a nuc with 2 more frames making sure no q cells then shook bees from hive into nuc moved nuc away after filling nuc with new frames then went through hive removed sealed q cells picked one frame with 2 unsealed q cells marked it then replaced in hive with 3 new frames and then replaced supers etc

 

[Millet]

Basically took the queen out of hive on a frame put into a nuc with 2 more frames making sure no q cells then shook bees from hive into nuc moved nuc away after filling nuc with new frames then went through hive removed sealed q cells picked one frame with 2 unsealed q cells marked it then replaced in hive with 3 new frames and then replaced supers etc

That sounds about right if you went by the book but i was advised strongly to leave only one queen cell as they can still swarm with the newly emerged virgin queen, however with me leaving only one queen cell the newly emerged virgin queen vanished leaving me with a Q- hive, luckily i still had my old queen to unite the Q- side onto.

 

[pjb1972]

Thanks millet the book says to check hive in seven days and destroy one of the q cells leaving the 1 feel a bit better reading your reply cheers

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi all after last weeks inspection my mentor and i found quite a few q cells so he was going to come round by wednesday this week to help me do an artificial swarm

Hmmm, if QC's were found last week, then an A/S should have been done immediately forget 'next wednesday' teatime that day could have been too late.
Not much of a mentor IMHO.
What you did was OK - basically a queen away split - far from ideal but it works. Just be mindful that the laying queen in the nuc won't take long to fill up the space and want to swarm again. and don't bother destroying one of the QCs two will be fine - you do need to go in again in four and seven days to take down any more emergency QCs they've made

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi all after last weeks inspection my mentor and i found quite a few q cells so he was going to come round by wednesday this week to help me do an artificial swarm

Bad advice......
AS as soon as queen cells are found.
You are jolly lucky your queen was still at home.
You did OK though.
Look up Pagden or Wally Shaw Snelgrove for next time
This is an excellent publication
http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Swarm-Control-Wally-Shaw.pdf

 

[pjb1972]

Thanks erichalfbee and jenkinsbyrnmair feel a lot better for your advice

 

[pjb1972]

Hmmm, if QC's were found last week, then an A/S should have been done immediately forget 'next wednesday' teatime that day could have been too late.
Not much of a mentor IMHO.
What you did was OK - basically a queen away split - far from ideal but it works. Just be mindful that the laying queen in the nuc won't take long to fill up the space and want to swarm again. and don't bother destroying one of the QCs two will be fine - you do need to go in again in four and seven days to take down any more emergency QCs they've made

Thanks much appreciated

 

[Brigsy]

I suspect that the mentor meant you did a different method to their preferred, rather than 'wrong'

 

[pjb1972]

Could be right there��

 

[sbisme]

Me being new the only difference I would have done was put the queen in a full brood box on originally sight and move the old hive to one side and not used a Nuc, but to me you have done nothing wrong and the same story ask three Beekeepers a question and get three answers which will all be right, at least you spotted the QC I missed one last year and lost a swarm, it's a steep learning curve but a very enjoyable one.

 

[pjb1972]

Thank you sbisme

 

[pjb1972]

Hi everyone well last Wednesday I opened up the hive to find 8 queen cells on different frames which I removed leaving me one queen cell on a marked frame the question is my book says leave now for 3 weeks does this sound right? Thanks Paul

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi everyone well last Wednesday I opened up the hive to find 8 queen cells on different frames which I removed leaving me one queen cell on a marked frame the question is my book says leave now for 3 weeks does this sound right? Thanks Paul

yes, and still don't panic if you don't see eggs. It sometimes takes a little longer for the queen to mate

 

[pjb1972]

Thanks jenkinsbyrnmair much appreciated

 

[sbisme]

yes, and still don't panic if you don't see eggs. It sometimes takes a little longer for the queen to mate

I have a virgin that should hatch in the next 24hrs, my concern is I only have one hive nearby and there are very few drones, there are also no Beekeepers near by, should I be concerned she won't mate properly?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have a virgin that should hatch in the next 24hrs, my concern is I only have one hive nearby and there are very few drones, there are also no Beekeepers near by, should I be concerned she won't mate properly?

I live in Rural Wales
According to Beebase there are 75 Apiaries within a 10 kilometre radius of mine.
I am aware of only 10