Mid-August. Sealed Q cells & few stores. Advice please.

[Green Bee]

We are at the end of our first year of bee-keeping and need advice please.
We hived a swarm in May 2012. The Queen swarmed in July and we lost them. We re-queened from a local supplier, but the bees knew better and tried to supersede in May. We took down the Queen cells - bad move, but we're learning. They re-queened themselves in June. We now have a colony full of baby bees, but the foragers are very low in numbers, We won't have a decent number of foragers for another week or so & the local nectar availability is decreasing rapidly now.
They have very few stores in the brood box. As the new queen was laying well, we added a super. However, there's not much in it (lack of foragers - hindsight is a wonderful thing...)
Now the news bees have emerged there is still plenty of laying/store room in the brood box. On inspection today we saw brand new eggs, but no queen (not yet marked), but then found 2 sealed queen cells, which I removed. I'm concerned that I should have left them?
I'll check again in 3 days to see if there are new eggs.
I think we should feed them now, as the main nectar flow is over and the weather is cooling.
Is there anything else we should do, with winter approaching? I am concerned for their survival at this stage of the season, and don't understand why they produced queen cells when they have plenty of space in the brood chamber. We are going away for a week in 5 days' time.
Any advice appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[Queens59]

You are not clear as to whether there is a queen or not - try a test frame (a frame of eggs from another hive) - do you know another beek who would let you have a frame? Or even a square of eggs you can 'stick' to another frame in your hive?

Feed - even if they have a queen, or you need to help them get a queen they are not going to get stores in time to survive the winter - so help them...

BUT without a queen they will not survive the winter anyway...They sound like they were trying to supercede the queen to go into winter with a new top of the market queen but you have taken that out of the equation...space in the BB at this time of year does not affect how the bees deal with the issues they have. How the queen is working os more obvious to them than to you...Feed... before you go away!

Oh, and take off the super - more harm than good...

 

[Finman]

but then found 2 sealed queen cells, which I removed. I'm concerned that I should have left them?
I'll check again in 3 days to see if there are new eggs.
I think we should feed them now, as the main nectar flow is over and the weather is cooling. .

It is long time to winter and queens lay winter bees later.

It is not time to feed. There is no space for winter brood then.

Buy a laying queen and keep the hive warm that hive rear the winterbees.

Take extra space off. Shut mesh floor.

When you get a generation of new brood, and they emerge, then feed the hive full.

.

 

[richardbees]

Hello Green

No problem if you saw eggs - it looks like they want to "Supercede" i.e. replace the existing Q with a new one, and will try again.
It's only mid- August so I suggest you just leave them alone for a few weeks-
- and remove that super, after shakiong off all the bees to make sure the Q isn't in it!

richard

 

[Hivemaker.]

On inspection today we saw brand new eggs, but no queen (not yet marked), but then found 2 sealed queen cells, which I removed. I'm concerned that I should have left them?
I'll check again in 3 days to see if there are new eggs.

try a test frame (a frame of eggs from another hive)

They already have eggs, so not much point adding more as in a test frame.

 

[Green Bee]

Thank you very much everyone - so helpful, and I'm still find my way around the forum!
We'll remove the super first thing tomorrow and feed them. The frames are so light at the moment - just full of young bees that don't have enough to eat. Can we give them any of their own stores back from that super - how? Nothing is capped as yet.
Will check in the next couple of days, just to make certain we are still getting eggs, then perhaps leave them to it. After all, they do know best & they don't read the books or go to lectures. I wish I was as wise!!!

 

[richardbees]

green,
I wouldn't faff around trying to feed back from the super, just give them 1lb sugar / 1 pt water syrup with an instant 'donut' feeder over the feed hole.

 

[Finman]

.
Every hive needs minimum 5 kg food stores that hive can stand one week bad weather. It is 2 full frames capped food.

 

[MuswellMetro]

But not too much, as finman says, you dont want them filling the brood area,just so they dont starve, 10lbs of store is sufficient, thats two national frames

 

[Queens59]

Oooops sorry HM - missed that - our internet is worse than useless at the mo. and I was reading in segments...

 

[BeeJayBee]

the local nectar availability is decreasing rapidly now.

Not disagreeing with anything anybody else has said, because feeding makes good sense.

But, the 'local nectar supply' may depend on whereabouts in Poole your bees are (it's not a good idea to say exactly where your bees are, just in case), because heather's just coming into flower and there's a good chance it'll produce nectar this year. If your bees are within 3 miles of it, they'll find it.

Blackberries will flower sporadically until the first frosts, and ivy won't start until some time next month. If the bees are near the town, and people's gardens and the various parks, there'll be a surprising amount of forage. (People like to see flowers in their gardens right through the year.)

Can we give them any of their own stores back from that super - how? Nothing is capped as yet.

You can give them back the food from the super, but if they're storing nectar 'upstairs' I'm not entirely sure why they haven't also stored nectar within the brood box. The super tends to be used as an overflow once the brood box is full-ish.

You're using a 14x12 - how many brood frames have been drawn, and how many frames are they actually using?

Are you a member of the local BKA? If so, is there somebody who could go through the colony with you?