How early!

[Heather]

Have a bee keeping friend who has just seen an open queen cell, jelly and nice larva in one of her hives. There are new drones walking about so they knew what they were doing. The existing queen is a 2006 and getting 'tatty'.
Is this a record??
Heather

 

[Finman]

.
Bees may change the queen when ever. That is why you meet drone layers after winter.

If the queen has got nosema, bees start to rear a new queen.

*************

Do you start calculate records from first of January?

 

[Polyanwood]

So do people think that Heather's friend's queen stands much chance of successfully mating??

 

[BKF Admin]

Looking ahead a few weeks when she will be ready to fly and mate we will be in April,I would say it will depend on how good she is as an April shower dodger.

I am along the coast from Heather and have plenty of Drones in my hives but have yet to see any flying,my average afternoon temp for this month is 14c.

 

[Finman]

If the cell has now queen milk, it will be ready to mate after 3 weeks.
The queen will be in mating condition 3 weeks, so about 6 weeks time to mate.

But as you see, the hive will loose 2 generations of brood with this method.

Not good idea to wait queen from that cell.

 

[Polyanwood]

So would you recommending combining the hive to get over this problem Finman?

 

[Finman]

So would you recommending combing the hive to get over this problem Finman?

That I would say. The hive gets a good start when your friend combine it to another hive. Something is wrong in that queen.

 

[Poly Hive]

I would say the colony would be far better off being united to a good one.

Drones Admin?

I am another month at a good guess from even having drone brood.

so much for a level playing field in the UK. It just does not exist..lol

PH

 

[BKF Admin]

We seem to be doing well with the weather so far down here.

I am just off to clip a couple of last years Queens as its 16.4c already at 11.30am.

I am trying to stay very aware that with our british weather we could end up with snow next month.

I think another 5-6 weeks and I should be safe to start in earnest.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Young emerged drones here as well,been putting drone combs into selected colonys. Bee's bringing in loads of pollen from various tree blossom,gorse,and dandelions out in flower,so some nectar comming in from them.

 

[Bcrazy]

Hi Finman

If the queen has got nosema, bees start to rear a new queen.

I have a colony which is suffering with Nosema. I do not see them making it as there are no eggs. If the queen has Nosema then her ovaries are not feed the nutrients need for egg production. How can they produce queens when there are no eggs? No eggs no queen.

If the queen has Nosema then it goes without saying there will bee bees that also have Nosema.
I have isolated the particular hive to the middle of nowhere and also noticed only a couple of bees bringing in pollen. So I think this is another one to add to the statistics.

Regards;

 

[Heather]

The swarm info service in Sussex has had 2 reports from beekeepers of swarms last week!!

 

[victor meldrew]

There are such things as hunger swarms but I haven't seen one,

John Wilkinson

 

[Busy Bee]

I'm havin a hunger swarm, goin to the chinese!

Sorry could'nt resist.


Busy Bee

 

[BKF Admin]

I am not suprised to here about swarms,I think we need to tell our bees what month we are in.

 

[Polyanwood]

One of mine would have been making swarm preparations if I had not caught it today. 2 weeks ago lots of room. Today barely an empty cell, lots of nectar that there was no sign of previously and brace comb being built in the roof. That is what happens when it is warm for 2 weeks in march then.

 

[BKF Admin]

Is brace comb above the crownboard a good sign that its time to give more room ?
I realise that seeing 6+ frames of brood helps.

 

[BKF Admin]

There are such things as hunger swarms but I haven't seen one,

John Wilkinson

I have read of overfeeding in spring causing swarms as well because the brood area is full of stores?

 

[Polyanwood]

I think that not having enough room can be caused in different ways or a combination of them; a more prolific queen than you thought, a flow on when you didn't expect, or over feeding. It is not enough room that is the problem. From bitter experience I have found that once I find brace comb above the crownboard it is sometimes too late and they have swarmed. I have put on super of drawn frames and no QE to give more room, but will be looking carefully for QCs next week... once they get in the mood to do it they usually go for it don't they? I suspect that I have overcrowded them. When I looked at them 2 weeks ago they were still in the cluster.

 

[Finman]

Hi Finman

I have a colony which is suffering with Nosema. ....;

I do not know what you are saying. I have seen many kind of cases.

One spring a hive had a srong brood area. Then the queen stopped laying completely. I changed it and that one stopped too. The third brooded normally.

I have seen cases that queen lays a bit but along spring it stops laying.
Very seldom they make queen cells in these cases.

One summer I go new queens. It was rainy summer and colony was small.
Queens abdomen was reall big or swollen but only some eggs came out.

Nosema is common in hives and what I have read, the symptoms resemples nosema. I do not know another disease which acts like this.