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Beezy

House Bee
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
177
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Location
London
Hive Type
National
Hi there,

I have been really thick and made my first big mistake and was hoping someone could advise me!

A few days ago I harvested one super; I put the second underneath the bb after bruising some of the cappings, so the bees would take it up into the bb - this was divided by the crown board.

Then I put the empty super on top of the bb so the bees could clean it up. The thing is that I forgot to add the QE. Now I've decided that I need to hurry up and get the varroa treatment going, so the best solution seems to be to extract the 1st super myself and feed it to the bees by use of a feeder - then I can take the super off b4 treatment and it won't be contaminated.

So I need to do this asap, but I have no idea where the Q could be thanks to my forgetting the QE. Another issue is that as I have only one CB, I had nothing to put on top of the boxes, so a lot of bees are in the roof, making it more difficult for myself. I guess the only way is to try and quickly go through the bb to ascertain is the Q is in there, then the top super? (I wouldn't have thought she'd be in bottom one).

Presumably if for any reason I accidentally trapped her in the super, she wouldn't be able to go through to bb or could she squeeze through porter bee escape? Would you recommend anything to cover top super whilst the CB is in use?

Any advice much appreciated.
 
She is most likely in the brood box, unless no space and laying upstairs.

Fairly simple job to skake the bees off the frames you want above the Q/E. No chance? then of missing the queen.

BTW you say Now I've decided that I need to hurry up and get the varroa treatment going,, but what is the rush? Is your mite drop too high, or are you just following the flock? Dates are not too important in the first half of August.

Regards, RAB
 
I am only 60 miles from London and I never start treatment before September..

There is no rush down south to treat and feed.

I usually bed mine down for the winter having been treated and fed during september/october around bonfire night.

You have plenty of time yet to swap/change and correct any mistakes.
 
Thanks for the replies!

In London, I've been told that there's normally a flow on in September so it's best to get treatment over with in August and empty super(s) back on by then. The varroa count is low in my hive at the mo, so it was the Sep flow which had me in a bit of a hurry.

Hopefully the Q is still in the bb, otherwise will have to search through super which will take longer. Due to the fact there's no cover as CB is between bb and super, a cloud of bees emerged when I last opened hive.

Do you have 2 CBs for this situation: one for the top and one for between the supers? Can you recommend anything I can put on top in the meantime maybe a piece of cardboard, do you think?
 
A large thick plastic bag would be fine for a few days until you rearrange the hive.
 
Do you have 2 CBs for this situation: one for the top and one for between the supers? Can you recommend anything I can put on top in the meantime maybe a piece of cardboard, do you think?

I have cut up a sheet of 6mm ply into squares, varnished them for easy cleaning, and I carry a couple in the car 'just in case'. They are also good to top and bottom full supers and a strap/string holds them together.

Mike.
 
The flow in September is Ivy Beezy and London is a big old place can you be more pacific I am close to Heathrow if you need a hand
 
Thanks for the advice. I think I was overreacting so thanks also for putting it in perspective! I thought it had all gone horribly wrong but hopefully when I have a look later I'll be able to fix it.

I'll use a thick black bag in the interim - the ply squares sound like a useful thing to have though so will get some of those made up.

Tom - I'm in SE London. Thanks v much for the offer, but I have an exp beekeeper who can offer advice: I just don't want to pester her constantly! :)
 

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