Inspection

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Joined
Nov 13, 2011
Messages
127
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Location
Suffolk
Hive Type
WBC
Number of Hives
6
just in from inspecting five hives, one appears to have several capped Q cells on one frame. I had assumed that the queen will have gone as they are capped but reading the forum I should go look for the queen and then perform AS if she is there. Is it correct that she could be? If she is not I assume its a case of wait for new queen to hatch?
 
did you notice that there were less bees??? if you did then im afraid she may be gone .. if you didnt then i would find her , today and do a AS
 
Good luck! Depends to some extent on the weather you are having. Perfect time to increase your stocks if you want to though.
E
 
be interesting to see iff she is still there keep us updated drinkstone
 
It gets worse! I have no moved all bees over to a new brood box on stand as per instructions in a copy of Bee Craft - no sign of queen. Currently left with all frames except the one with the capped queen cells in new hive. seems to me this may mean I have now created a queenless colony?
 
Fraid not the eyes aint what they used to be........brood in all stages though.
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I would suggest you use a magnifying glass with built in light to check for eggs.
 
So why did you leave the queen cells out if you were sure there was no queen? If there are eggs they will go about making some other q cells. Is there anyone local you can beg a little help from?
 
You do not need to find the queen to do an AS!

To do it without finding her

Take new brood box with new foundation and ideally one frame with drawn foundation (for her to start laying in), and place in original hive location)

Empty/brush ALL bees into this new box and when all in place a QX on top.

Then take the orginal brood box (now empty of bees) and place it on top of the QX in original brood box location(with eggs brood etc in) , with crown board supers etc as normal

So you now know you have the queen in the base section on new foundation (as you want for a AS)

Very quickly the nurse bees (non flying bees) will move upstairs to nurse the brood and you QC (s)

Next day, move this top section to a new location as a new hive.


Apologies to whoever wrote this last year....I pinched it for reference.
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Can be a little confusing, BIAS is as it suggests - 'eggs is brood' as the saying goes, so ALL stages includes eggs.
 
Thanks Eric, I think that is basically what I have done apart from putting qc's on top, but can soon do that. My concern is that the queen has actually swarmed although the amount of bees would make me think not it is likely as she has not been spotted and is marked.
I have requested some further advice from a local beek.
 

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