(this article is a re-post from my main blog http://www.EssexBees.co.ukLink removed by admin and is aimed at simplifying beekeeping for those who have more than a passing interest ... so please don't shoot me if it's not technically perfect
So, back to my article post...)
In my last posting I mentioned that we had split one of our hives in Wakering.
Well, today I went back to the hive with one of our trainees to see if the bees in the nuc have created a queen cell.
So, with much anticipation, the lid of the nuc hive was removed and there was indeed a lot of activity and the flying bees all had pollen on their legs (which is a sign of larvae being in the hive).
Looking at the frames, Mark (the trainee), spotted a queen bee on the first frame. Normally, this would be wonderful news, but as a queen takes 16 days to develop and it'd only been 10 days since we split the hive it meant only one thing...
...we'd accidentally put the queen into the nuc hive, rather than leaving her in the main hive.
A quick check of the remaining frames within the hive did not reveal any queen cells (as we would expect), but it did show a large number of eggs which is fantastic news.
So, having found the queen we weren't expecting to, we had to go to the main hive to make sure that the bees there had noticed that their queen was missing.
This hive, as I mentioned last time, was extremely active and strong and so I confident that the bees would have started to make a queen, but with bees, anything can happen!
With the smoker lit it was time to lift the lid and see what's been going on.
First off, the super was over half full of uncapped honey which is promising, but the best bit is that within the brood box, we found 3 queen cells, 2 of which were capped.
When creating an "emergency queen", the bees err on the side of caution and make 3 or 4. The reason for this is that on her maiden flight, the queen bee could be killed and if that happens, then the colony will die as there are no fresh eggs left for them to turn into a queen.
By planning for failure, if the first queen bee dies, then there are 2 others in reserve ... clever, huh?
Upon returning from her maiden flight (where she will mate with suitable drone bees), the new queens first job will be to kill her rivals, before starting her royal duties of laying eggs.
As these queen cells are on different frames within the hive, we could put one "queen frame" along with a couple of other good frames into another nuc hive, but it is a bit risky and given our winter problems, we'd sooner be safe than sorry.
The next thing for us to do is to check the hive with the new queen again in 10 days time. At this point we'll be looking for the queen herself, 2 "dead" queen cells and plenty of eggs and developing female brood.
Fingers crossed
So, back to my article post...)
In my last posting I mentioned that we had split one of our hives in Wakering.
Well, today I went back to the hive with one of our trainees to see if the bees in the nuc have created a queen cell.
So, with much anticipation, the lid of the nuc hive was removed and there was indeed a lot of activity and the flying bees all had pollen on their legs (which is a sign of larvae being in the hive).
Looking at the frames, Mark (the trainee), spotted a queen bee on the first frame. Normally, this would be wonderful news, but as a queen takes 16 days to develop and it'd only been 10 days since we split the hive it meant only one thing...
...we'd accidentally put the queen into the nuc hive, rather than leaving her in the main hive.
A quick check of the remaining frames within the hive did not reveal any queen cells (as we would expect), but it did show a large number of eggs which is fantastic news.
So, having found the queen we weren't expecting to, we had to go to the main hive to make sure that the bees there had noticed that their queen was missing.
This hive, as I mentioned last time, was extremely active and strong and so I confident that the bees would have started to make a queen, but with bees, anything can happen!
With the smoker lit it was time to lift the lid and see what's been going on.
First off, the super was over half full of uncapped honey which is promising, but the best bit is that within the brood box, we found 3 queen cells, 2 of which were capped.
When creating an "emergency queen", the bees err on the side of caution and make 3 or 4. The reason for this is that on her maiden flight, the queen bee could be killed and if that happens, then the colony will die as there are no fresh eggs left for them to turn into a queen.
By planning for failure, if the first queen bee dies, then there are 2 others in reserve ... clever, huh?
Upon returning from her maiden flight (where she will mate with suitable drone bees), the new queens first job will be to kill her rivals, before starting her royal duties of laying eggs.
As these queen cells are on different frames within the hive, we could put one "queen frame" along with a couple of other good frames into another nuc hive, but it is a bit risky and given our winter problems, we'd sooner be safe than sorry.
The next thing for us to do is to check the hive with the new queen again in 10 days time. At this point we'll be looking for the queen herself, 2 "dead" queen cells and plenty of eggs and developing female brood.
Fingers crossed
