Headnavigator
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2011
- Messages
- 1,049
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Isle of Wight
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 4
You're not going to believe this (not sure I do either!)
Hive had been Q- since well before 20 Jun. I put some scrounged grubs in on that date hoping for the emergency QC or some positive sign. Nothing - which is why I waited until now to requeen, as I read the lack of reaction to mean there was probably a queen present. However 7 weeks passed and not an egg or any other sign, bees at bit tetchy but they are a very calm colony normally, so I feared the worst.
Final check ten days ago, nothing still, even after the good spell of weather, so I ordered a new queen from Hivemaker. I didn't put in a test frame from my other colony as that had only just got going again after a longish Q- spell, I didn't want to weaken that, and I couldn't see the point, there was clearly nothing doing. Did a cursory check last week but didn't bother this time to check the few barely drawn frames in the super. (1st mistake)
Today opened up for a last check before introducing the new queen, to find nicely capped worker brood on two frames in the Super, and a good pattern of eggs on two frames in the brood box. Have just spent hours trying to find this suddenly appearing queen who can zip through a queen excluder at will, and she's not to be found for all my tricks.
Have split the hive, one half is obviously going to be queenless so at least in a couple of days I should be able to requeen that half. The other half I shall have to keep on splitting every couple of days until she's on her own.
Can't believe I was (a) so stupid as to have not checked the super last time round (b) not seen any sign of the hidey queen's presence at any stage (c) been conned by an invisible queen who has taken at the very least 8 weeks to mate and come into lay. Anyone else had one that's taken that long?
Hive had been Q- since well before 20 Jun. I put some scrounged grubs in on that date hoping for the emergency QC or some positive sign. Nothing - which is why I waited until now to requeen, as I read the lack of reaction to mean there was probably a queen present. However 7 weeks passed and not an egg or any other sign, bees at bit tetchy but they are a very calm colony normally, so I feared the worst.
Final check ten days ago, nothing still, even after the good spell of weather, so I ordered a new queen from Hivemaker. I didn't put in a test frame from my other colony as that had only just got going again after a longish Q- spell, I didn't want to weaken that, and I couldn't see the point, there was clearly nothing doing. Did a cursory check last week but didn't bother this time to check the few barely drawn frames in the super. (1st mistake)
Today opened up for a last check before introducing the new queen, to find nicely capped worker brood on two frames in the Super, and a good pattern of eggs on two frames in the brood box. Have just spent hours trying to find this suddenly appearing queen who can zip through a queen excluder at will, and she's not to be found for all my tricks.
Have split the hive, one half is obviously going to be queenless so at least in a couple of days I should be able to requeen that half. The other half I shall have to keep on splitting every couple of days until she's on her own.
Can't believe I was (a) so stupid as to have not checked the super last time round (b) not seen any sign of the hidey queen's presence at any stage (c) been conned by an invisible queen who has taken at the very least 8 weeks to mate and come into lay. Anyone else had one that's taken that long?
