At the end of July our smaller colony which was given to us as a small swarm ended up with a drone laying queen and we were advised to combine this colony with our other colony which was also a small cast swarm, but which had been steadily growing in size.
We combed using the newspaper method, weak queen-less colony on top and after 8 days there was signs of chewed newspaper below the hive, so we decided to reduce the two brood boxes into one which looked simple as the bottom colony had been across the first 7 or 8 frames, and the weaker colony had only been on three frames in their brood box, so it seems fairly easy to swap the drawn frames with bees from the top brood with the undrawn frames in the bottom.
That went fine, but when we started to look at the original frames for signs of eggs and larva, but as soon as we moved one of those frames the bees just got unbelievably aggressive and were pretty much just flying at us. So, we closed the hive without inspecting any further. Up until then they had been really docile and pretty much ignored us when we checked frames, so we were not prepared for this level of aggression and maybe we should have kept at it, but the bees obviously did't want us poking about their brood nest, so we retreated.
A week later we inspected with the help of an experienced bee keeper and the bees were back to their normal docile selves. This was 15 days after the colony combination, so possibly if we lost the original queen then, the timing would have allowed for an emergency queen cell to have been made and a young queen hatched. The chap who was inspecting with us said he thought he could see remains of queen cells that were a sign that we probably had a new virgin queen.
We then waited three weeks for her to mate, and on weekly inspections the pre-existing brood all hatched until there were no capped brood on any frames. We had calculated that hopefully she would start laying from last weekend, but just as a test we were given a frame with some eggs in it to 'test' the colony. When I put this frame in to the hive the bees were as usual very calm.
Today, 4 days after putting the donor board into the brood box, we have maybe 6 emergency queen cell structures on the donor board, and no sign of eggs on other frames and the bees were today almost as aggressive as they were the time before.
So, if what I think I know is correct, it would appear that there is no queen in the colony, mated or otherwise, as they have quickly set about making emergency queen cells as soon as the donor frame was introduced. Is there any chance of there being a young queen in there yet to get mated and queen cells still being produced? Probably a forlorn hope.
As the last eggs laid by the original queen who somehow got lost combining colonies were laid about 5 weeks ago, if we didn't get a new virgin queen from those eggs, (who has also gone missing), why didn't we have laying workers? How long after going queen-less does it take for workers to start laying.
We combed using the newspaper method, weak queen-less colony on top and after 8 days there was signs of chewed newspaper below the hive, so we decided to reduce the two brood boxes into one which looked simple as the bottom colony had been across the first 7 or 8 frames, and the weaker colony had only been on three frames in their brood box, so it seems fairly easy to swap the drawn frames with bees from the top brood with the undrawn frames in the bottom.
That went fine, but when we started to look at the original frames for signs of eggs and larva, but as soon as we moved one of those frames the bees just got unbelievably aggressive and were pretty much just flying at us. So, we closed the hive without inspecting any further. Up until then they had been really docile and pretty much ignored us when we checked frames, so we were not prepared for this level of aggression and maybe we should have kept at it, but the bees obviously did't want us poking about their brood nest, so we retreated.
A week later we inspected with the help of an experienced bee keeper and the bees were back to their normal docile selves. This was 15 days after the colony combination, so possibly if we lost the original queen then, the timing would have allowed for an emergency queen cell to have been made and a young queen hatched. The chap who was inspecting with us said he thought he could see remains of queen cells that were a sign that we probably had a new virgin queen.
We then waited three weeks for her to mate, and on weekly inspections the pre-existing brood all hatched until there were no capped brood on any frames. We had calculated that hopefully she would start laying from last weekend, but just as a test we were given a frame with some eggs in it to 'test' the colony. When I put this frame in to the hive the bees were as usual very calm.
Today, 4 days after putting the donor board into the brood box, we have maybe 6 emergency queen cell structures on the donor board, and no sign of eggs on other frames and the bees were today almost as aggressive as they were the time before.
So, if what I think I know is correct, it would appear that there is no queen in the colony, mated or otherwise, as they have quickly set about making emergency queen cells as soon as the donor frame was introduced. Is there any chance of there being a young queen in there yet to get mated and queen cells still being produced? Probably a forlorn hope.
As the last eggs laid by the original queen who somehow got lost combining colonies were laid about 5 weeks ago, if we didn't get a new virgin queen from those eggs, (who has also gone missing), why didn't we have laying workers? How long after going queen-less does it take for workers to start laying.
