Mentor Stumped

[Obee1]

when you're up to your neck in a hole........................................................

And sorry seems to be the hardest word.....

 

[BeeJayBee]

when you're up to your neck in a hole........................................................

Keep digging, and hope the spoil will cover up the onlookers!

Hive 2 was move to a new location along with brood and unsealed queen cells.

Today her husband noticed what looked to be a swarm on the grass in front of Hive 2 all marching in, and it looks like they all went in.

It could have been a swarm that decided to move in, and overwhelm, a queenless colony. Unlikely, but bees sometimes do what we think is unlikely.

Reported locally from a reputable and experienced beekeeper - A known-to-be queenless nuc (queen squashed, all cells removed etc) suddenly increased in numbers and has lots of foraging bees with orange stripes rather than the local dark bees of the original colony, has eggs in the right place to have been laid by a queen, and too soon after the nuc was made up for any missed queen cell to have matured and the queen mated. Incoming swarm was the explanation they gave.

 

[itma]

... I've seen plenty of EMPTY queen cells which of course are therefore UNSEALED, it does not make me do an A/S,

No, you have your terms wrong, and for the beginners, lets try and be clear on this so that they don't suffer a similar misunderstanding

-- if the thing is (incomplete) open and empty, it isn't called a queen cell, the term is "play cup"

-- once it is "wet" with royal jelly (and a larva) it becomes a "queen cell"


By using those different terms, we convey a different meaning, identifying different situations in the colony, calling for different responses from the beekeeper.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

No, you have your terms wrong, and for the beginners, lets try and be clear on this so that they don't suffer a similar misunderstanding

-- if the thing is (incomplete) open and empty, it isn't called a queen cell, the term is "play cup"

-- once it is "wet" with royal jelly (and a larva) it becomes a "queen cell"


By using those different terms, we convey a different meaning, identifying different situations in the colony, calling for different responses from the beekeeper.

the majority of us saw this and needed no clarification.
Talk about the blind trying to lead the blind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

when you're up to your neck in a hole........................................................

A good welshman would keep digging in the hope of finding a seam of coal surely?

 

[SteveJ]

No, you have your terms wrong, and for the beginners, lets try and be clear on this so that they don't suffer a similar misunderstanding

-- if the thing is (incomplete) open and empty, it isn't called a queen cell, the term is "play cup"

-- once it is "wet" with royal jelly (and a larva) it becomes a "queen cell"


By using those different terms, we convey a different meaning, identifying different situations in the colony, calling for different responses from the beekeeper.

 

[SteveJ]

Keep digging, and hope the spoil will cover up the onlookers!


It could have been a swarm that decided to move in, and overwhelm, a queenless colony. Unlikely, but bees sometimes do what we think is unlikely.

Reported locally from a reputable and experienced beekeeper - A known-to-be queenless nuc (queen squashed, all cells removed etc) suddenly increased in numbers and has lots of foraging bees with orange stripes rather than the local dark bees of the original colony, has eggs in the right place to have been laid by a queen, and too soon after the nuc was made up for any missed queen cell to have matured and the queen mated. Incoming swarm was the explanation they gave.

Funnily enough I was in my own apiary the other day and when I arrived there was a swarm sat on a dock. So placed a skep over it while I did my inspections. While I was working I noticed a build up of bees on the front of one of my queenless colonies then it seemed to dissipate and the build up started again on the next queen less in the line and then repeated until it had been round all five of my queen less colonies in that apiary. As I was leaving the apiary, two hours later, I put an empty hive next to the skep and poured them in.
I can confirm there was a single sealed queen cell in each of the queenless colonies and anyway the bees in the swarm where blacker than my yellow mongrals.

SteveJ

 

[Thymallus]

Its of note that when German bee breeders (and possibly others) are making a lot of small apidea type mating boxes they are essentially depleting a hive of a lot of bees. They then place a custom designed queen excluder over the entrance to prevent stray swarms gaining entrance to a now weakened hive.

 

[bingevader]

Haven't had the chance to try myself (too slow!), but it is possible, apparently, to perform a pre-emptive AS (ie. before QCs have even formed).

We had a cast swarm in May last year that began to dwindle and was soon usurped by a much bigger swarm.