ksjs
House Bee
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2011
- Messages
- 195
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- North Wales
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 3
I've had a brief look on here and my bee book library but couldn't find an answer: I've just hived a swarm and they are happily in a nuc. The frames in the nuc are already drawn and the swarm pretty much fills the nuc (4 seams of bees). I've given them some syrup despite good weather and fact that frames are drawn as I have it in my mind that this may help make them more likely to stay but I've probably made that up. Anyway, my questions are:
- how long after hiving them can I / should I inspect (my concern is to make sure there's a queen in there and that they have sufficient space and are bringing in stores)?
- when should I transfer them to a larger hive keeping in mind that they're already looking pretty cramped? Also of note here is that they were hived in a national sitting within a few feet of a nuc that never got going this year as the queen was lost. They then took it upon themselves to move into the very same nuc! That happened yesterday so I can only assume there's a reason they're there, they've moved.
Now, down to queen cells... So, following the swarm (which left my strongest colony) I went through the BB and discovered 6 queen cells and 2 play cups. 4 of the QC were sealed and 1 of the play cups had jelly and a tiny larvae. I removed the play cups and culled the 4 sealed QCs and in theory am only left with the 2 unsealed QCs.
On reflection I'm questioning why I culled the sealed QCs. I suppose it's a question of the literature suggesting that this is what you should do. Also, it gives you a much better idea of when a subsequent swarm may happen i.e. you can hopefully control this better.
I realise that through prior inspections I should still be able to date the sealed QCs but my last inspection before yesterday's and before the swarm was Tue 28th and I can only assume I missed play cups that then became QCs - they were in prominent positions however so I'm unsure what I did / didn't do.
For next time I'm wondering why not select sealed QCs rather than unsealed: these are further on so there's less chance of them being damaged / dying and you'd have less time without a queen so less lag in the hive producing workers. What is the accepted wisdom on selecting QCs, am I wrong in suggesting that retaining unsealed QCs is the 'standard' method?
Thanks in advance.
- how long after hiving them can I / should I inspect (my concern is to make sure there's a queen in there and that they have sufficient space and are bringing in stores)?
- when should I transfer them to a larger hive keeping in mind that they're already looking pretty cramped? Also of note here is that they were hived in a national sitting within a few feet of a nuc that never got going this year as the queen was lost. They then took it upon themselves to move into the very same nuc! That happened yesterday so I can only assume there's a reason they're there, they've moved.
Now, down to queen cells... So, following the swarm (which left my strongest colony) I went through the BB and discovered 6 queen cells and 2 play cups. 4 of the QC were sealed and 1 of the play cups had jelly and a tiny larvae. I removed the play cups and culled the 4 sealed QCs and in theory am only left with the 2 unsealed QCs.
On reflection I'm questioning why I culled the sealed QCs. I suppose it's a question of the literature suggesting that this is what you should do. Also, it gives you a much better idea of when a subsequent swarm may happen i.e. you can hopefully control this better.
I realise that through prior inspections I should still be able to date the sealed QCs but my last inspection before yesterday's and before the swarm was Tue 28th and I can only assume I missed play cups that then became QCs - they were in prominent positions however so I'm unsure what I did / didn't do.
For next time I'm wondering why not select sealed QCs rather than unsealed: these are further on so there's less chance of them being damaged / dying and you'd have less time without a queen so less lag in the hive producing workers. What is the accepted wisdom on selecting QCs, am I wrong in suggesting that retaining unsealed QCs is the 'standard' method?
Thanks in advance.