Last weeks swarm, doing ok!

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merylvingien

Field Bee
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
536
Reaction score
0
Location
Near Andover Hampshire
Hive Type
Commercial
Number of Hives
7
I was going to leave it a couple more days before doing an inspection on last weeks swarm, but work is building up and my mentor said lets do it, so!

They have drawn all 5 frames out lovely, the queen is there somewhere although as this was a quick inspection to see what is happening, we didnt go looking.
She is laying across three frames.

Here are a few photos that i snapped...

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A swarm drawing foundation is a sight to behold. We lifted the crownboard of our large swarm, and we saw masses of lovely pale white comb. Full inspection next week.
 
Nice shot of the eggs in the cells.
 
A week on, and i am on my own, so i made a frame holder that i can plonk on the top of the bb and take a photo of each side, it works pretty well.

This frame looks ok to me...

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This one i am not too sure of, maybe its just the angle the photo was taken. Do the larvea look ok to trained eyes?

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First time i seen the queen, but i got her name and address..

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The second swarm i collected is another story, one frame with some brood, didnt see the queen or any eggs and there was plenty of play cups available to gawp at. I couldnt see any larvea in these play cups though. I may have to get the mentor to come and have look.

On the bright side, those new rubber gloves work a treat.
 
looks very good. A few more brood cycles and they will be good for a full size hive.
 
Cheers, actually that lot are already in a commercial BB.

I will try and get some photos of the other lot, which dont appear to be doing so well, its only been a week mind, so hopefully they will sort themselves out and get going.

Is it normal for a new queen to lay up some brood, then stop for a while?
Or once she starts, does she just bang on?

I am concerned that i didnt see any eggs in the second box, or her. I will leave a couple days and go back for second look. Maybe with a magnifying glass!
 

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