Mini Nuc - question

[plumberman]

Grateful for any help: not used mini nucs until today!

I made up two of my mini nucs today, each with a queen cell inside a protector. Bees still seem fairly unhappy ( roaring) despite presence of cell - is this normal?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Were they ripe cells,like just about to emerge?

 

[plumberman]

They are probably about 3-4 days from hatching

 

[BKF Admin]

Did the cells have orange tips?

Do the cells contain queens?

I have found that as soon as a ripe cell goes in they calm down as fast as turning a light on.

Its amazing to see how calm they become in an instant with a good ripe cell.

 

[plumberman]

Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of great timing - the main crux of todays inspection was to remove excess queen cells from the swarming hives that I split last week.

Is it worth continuing what is basically an experiment, or return the bees from whence they came?

 

[BKF Admin]

I would leave them.
There is a good chance they will hatch,if not its good experience for you.

 

[plumberman]

Thanks for your replies - I'll wait and see what happens.........

 

[plumberman]

Update - they have hatched! I also hot wax glued some spare q/cells onto the underside of a couple of jars, put some damp cotton wool in the bottom and then placed them in the airing cupboard - one has already hatched, so I have run her into my final mini nuc. Thanks to ( Grizly?) who mentioned this last year. Looks like I may have to squish any further hatching virgins, unless anyone has any use for them.

All very exciting for the first time - now I guess got to see if they mate ok.

 

[MJBee]

Plumberman - what a lovely situation to be in - too many queens I have 4 Apideas with virgins which will hopefully mate and only 1 colony that needs to be requeened.

Regards Mike

PS don't know if BCrazy is still looking for queens for his microscopery might be worth a PM.

 

[oliver90owner]

Looking at all the weather forecasts for the month, one may wonder when all these early queens are going to get properly mated. Too cold round here a lot of the time for even the drones to come out for a bit of exercise!

MJBee may have a serious advantage, in this respect, over some of us. I am not pressing my bees to produce queen cells yet, for that very reason. I would prefer later, but properly mated queens rather than risk supercedure problems further into the season, but good luck to all those with hatching queens; you may get them properly mated with some good luck....

Regards, RAB

 

[plumberman]

Looking at all the weather forecasts for the month, one may wonder when all these early queens are going to get properly mated. Too cold round here a lot of the time for even the drones to come out for a bit of exercise!

MJBee may have a serious advantage, in this respect, over some of us. I am not pressing my bees to produce queen cells yet, for that very reason. I would prefer later, but properly mated queens rather than risk supercedure problems further into the season, but good luck to all those with hatching queens; you may get them properly mated with some good luck....

Regards, RAB

Unfortunately my bees chose for me when they were going to produce Q/cells.

I'm never that keen on long term forecasts, and generally anything beyond the next 72 hours I think to a degree is conjecture. However, I take the point that I am in the lap of the gods over the next fortnight or so and will need a bit of luck. My insurance policy is that I still have the original (late 2009) queens from the three hives in nuclei.

I did remove a total of 24kg honey from my 3 hives tonight, so at least I have something to show from this year!

As regards my spare virgins (if they hatch!) they have already been assigned a good home...

Cheers

Roddy