Modified Snelgrove II

[Erichalfbee]

Just thought I'd have a nosey at how other's "Wallys" are doing.
I know these seem to be the rage at the moment and are particularly attractive in that you don't have to find the queen initially.
I did two last year one was text book but the other failed to make a queen.
This year....so far I have split three hives.
The Snelgrove queen was murdered immediately on repatriation and was on the landing board before I closed up the hive.
The Pagden has worked perfectly.
The third has had the Queen nuc'd so that I can re-queen the other half of the split prior to uniting with another colony.

 

[Glenviewbee]

I've done one so far this year - but am not very hopeful as I had to cobble the timetable slightly due to circumstances:
Originally was due to do the initial move on Monday 15th but the weather had other ideas and I could only do the move on Weds 17th. Because of a commitment to travel pm Thurs 25th until now, I had to do the cull of QCs and repatriation on day 8 instead of between 9 and 12 - my OH reported a great mass of bees at 5ish up at the apiary on the Friday but couldn't say if it was a swarm exit (he's not keen on getting up close and personal with them) - he did say it was baking hot that day so maybe it was just lots of flying bees (there re 8 colonies up there)
I haven't had a chance to get into the WS hive yet but I'm wondering whether the flyers rejoiced in the return of HMQ so much that they decided to swarm...... I'm hoping to get into that hive on Thurs to see if HMQ is still there

 

[Brigsy]

I've done two. First was muddled through a Bailey comb change kicking it off I think. But the new queen has nearly filled a commercial brood box and they are showing signs of congestion again.........

The other I am awaiting a new queen, but the repatriated Q+ side is gong great guns.

 

[Charley]

I've done two. Still can't find the b***** queen to return her so am leaving one qc on the original site in both cases. Q seems to have stayed put in the moved hive. We shall see what happens. I'm into my sixth summer and never known such a swarmy season. On the plus side, lots of capped honey that has spun well and not turned to rock solid OSR.

 

[Magwat]

I mentioned elsewhere that I did one with a mentee on a strong hive and the first stage was immediately followed by several days of cold wind. When we went back in on day 9 they had swarmed with the queen - the first time it has failed for me.

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

If you don't repatriate the queen what is the effect on the q+ side
Would moving the flyers side to an apiary 3 miles away help convince them that they had actually swarmed so they could be combined with a colony led by a this years queen after a few days

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you don't repatriate the queen the AS will raise a new queen themselves but she might not be up to scratch as there are no nurse bees to feed the QC well. If you want to requeen by uniting with another hive instead of giving them their old queen there is no need to move them at all. Just put the new box on top. It depends how many supers are on top though. You might have to reduce to one and unite through that.
I think it's important to let them build those new queen cells to near emergence though so a few days will not be long enough

 

[Tony M]

Well, I've done 2 "modified Snelgrove II" splits so far.

The first was on a hive that was developing rather slowly, and still had plenty of room when it developed queen cells - I wasn't certain whether they might be superseding, but decided not to chance it. Split was 20th April, and the original queen (I suspect) got bumped off after I had moved her back to the split after 9 days. However, checked this morning, and I have 2 new laying queens in the 2 bits - so all has turned out well.

The second split was on my "main" hive - they were developing well when queen cells appeared. Split them on 19th May, and shifted the queen to the split on 26th. She's happily laying again, and there are sealed queen cells in the other half now - I should have another new queen around this time next week, and hopefully mating and laying by the end of the month.

All things considered, it's gone well. This is only my second season with bees, and the first time I've needed to manage swarming, so I'm quite pleased that I made the effort to understand how the WS/Snelgrove approach works.

Fingers crossed!

Tony.

 

[Brigsy]

Ericha, on your Pagden did you do the second move to the other side of the queen?

 

[Erichalfbee]

No. Just very assiduously checked for queen cells

 

[Brigsy]

Understood.

 

[Summerslease]

Did two 'Wallys' this year. The first was a vertical one on a large colony. The problem arose when I started the second manipulation and put the top box to one side to find the queen. I found her alright but when I went to remove the EQCs in the bottom box the bees were very feisty. Added to that the foraging bees from the top box were all returning at my head height with no box to enter. Not a situation I'd recommend.
The second 'Wally' I did horizontally without any issues.

 

[Tony M]

My second split was done "vertically" - this on a 14x12 with 3 supers on. I didn't have too much problem with the bees (although my bottom box seemed more lively than usual yesterday) - but I was pleased to shift the top box onto a new floor nearby - the height made the lifting more difficult.

 

[Glenviewbee]

Unfortunately my WS did as I feared after I repatriated HMQ on day 8 - they swarmed the next day
I knew I was taking a risk, but if I am messed up re timings on another occasion I think I'll just leave the Q with the brood half and let the 'swarm' part cobble along and then deal with the result after - unfortunately I have now lost a good queen, there are NO QCs in the 'swarm' part as I had culled all the EQs before returning HMQ. I'm a tad surprised that they did b*gger off considering they left no QCs.
Now I need to ponder what to do with the queenless half.

 

[Finman]

.
Seems to lots of methods!!!

One method more : Buy a laying queen... and buy second for spare.

 

[Eyeman]

Unfortunately my WS did as I feared after I repatriated HMQ on day 8 - they swarmed the next day
I knew I was taking a risk, but if I am messed up re timings on another occasion I think I'll just leave the Q with the brood half and let the 'swarm' part cobble along and then deal with the result after - unfortunately I have now lost a good queen, there are NO QCs in the 'swarm' part as I had culled all the EQs before returning HMQ. I'm a tad surprised that they did b*gger off considering they left no QCs.
Now I need to ponder what to do with the queenless half.

You must have deviated from the plan.
Doesn't Wally say his method is 100% successful if you follow it to the letter!

 

[Finman]

You must have deviated from the plan.
Doesn't Wally say his method is 100% successful if you follow it to the letter!

May be, but Wally Shaw is not perfect

 

[Glenviewbee]

You must have deviated from the plan.
Doesn't Wally say his method is 100% successful if you follow it to the letter!

Yes I was aware I was deviating from the plan - I had originally planned the 1st manip so that I could do the rematriation (!) of the queen on day 10/11, but the weather and work thwarted my plans so I ended up having to do the 2nd stage on Day 8
Lesson learned