Hello

[nicks1967]

Good morning folks
My name is Nick and new to beekeeping
I have 2 hives at moment and reading frantically about how to become a good beekeeper
I have found this site yesterday and been busy reading as much info as possible
I have unfortunately had 2 swarms and concerned about the future of the hives
A queen cell hatched about a month and a half back and returned to lay quite a few larvae plus a lot of capped drone cells
on inspection yesterday there has been no action since only a few larvae being laid
the other hive was going great guns and now the queen has gone as there is no signs of any action taking place but a new queen cell has been produced which I have left alone
when should I inspect these hives again and how often should I inspect them
Your advice will be greatly received at this moment in time
At the moment I'm reading the book "The complete step by step book of beekeeping" by David Cramp

Many thanks again
Nick

 

[Drew]

Hello and welcome.


Enjoy the fun......

 

[tonybloke]

hi,welcome to the forum.
have a read of this http://www.wbka.com/pdf/a012queencells.pdf

 

[nicks1967]

Thanks tonybloke good read
Thanks for the welcome the 2 of you hope to be around quite some time extracting info

 

[oliver90owner]

when should I inspect these hives again and how often should I inspect them

Welcome to the forum.

The recently swarmed colony could be left three weeks from emergence of the queen after a quick check that she has actually emerged.

To be honest I am not sure that the colony has swarmed, particularly if there was only ever the one queen cell. More like they are superceding an old or duff queen.

The other colony appears to need some urgent attention. My fist impression, with the information given, is that the queen has failed, but I am not entirely sure (not enough specific detail to go on).

She may still be there, so firstly a test frame is needed to ascertain whether the colony is queenright or queenless unless you already know the answer. It appears that you do not have one so you need to find some friendly beeks near to you (have you joined the local BKA?) Seems like she needs removing and then the fun of replacing her this late in this very 'dodgy' season.

Regards, RAB