naughty bees!

[gill68]

For the first time since I moved my 2 colonies of bees to their new location about 10 days ago, it was warm enough to check through yesterday.

I went all prepared with spare equipment to do an artificial swarm, but wasn't really prepared for what I did find!
All was fine in the first hive; no q cells just building nicely. However, the second hive had 4 frames with swarm cells; all sealed bar one. Not only that, but, as I trundled through the hive, hoping to find old queenie, there was a virgin queen and one of the q cells hatched while I was there. There do still seem to be plenty of bees in the hive, but that all means that they made q cells at the end of March. I had a check through around 20 March, and all was fine then; no evidence of their intentions. Both hives had, if I remember correctly 6 frames brood.

One day I would like to get to do a proper artificial swarm and have the opportunity to follow 'textbook' style!

I never found the old queen and I am pretty sure there were no eggs, but the weather has been cold here and not great so I would have thought it was too cold for swarms.

I ended up, after several methodical checks for the old queen, cutting my losses and leaving one virgin queen and the only unsealed queen cell in the main hive on the original position and putting the frame with the other virgin , a couple of frames of stores with all the attached bees and a frame of brood in a nuc to the side. There were loads of drones but I don't hold out much for their chances of a mating flight, looking at the weather forecast for this week.

Anyone any comments? I went with a very good idea of what I would do if I found q cells etc, and , yet again, ended up trying to think on my feet.

Does anyone have any experience of swarms yet this year( especially any around Bere Regis in Dorset!)
I am intending to feed the nuc bees, but can anyone advise what sort of average temperature decides weather its fondant or syrup?

Nice to have a winge; very cathartic! I think I said to someone the other days, that beekeeping was fun because it was a challenge second guessing what they are up to; that'll teach me!

Gill

 

[enrico]

Wow, what a day! IMO I wouldn't worry about mating flights, despite what all the books say, if there are drones in my experience it happens anyway! If I had been in your position with the equipment that you had to hand, I would have done exactly what you did.... The question really is where is the old queen? If she was still in there then it will be interesting to see what you are left with at the next inspection. All I can say is well done. Good effort in the circumstances!!

 

[wightbees]

I would of AS the hive just to be sure,could unite latter if needed.

 

[Eyeman]

Had a similar problem- all the QC's hatching infront of your eyes anf the queens actually taking flight- that was during the summer. It is said that opening the hive stops the workers keeping the queens in. If the queen wasn't clipped she probably went when the first QC was sealed.
The hive you left a virgin + QC in is likely to swam again when the QC is sealed or perhaps sooner- I made that mistake and they swarmed 2-3 days later. I would have only left the virgin
Problem you have is not really knowing how many virgins are really there?
One thing is for sure I would not want to use that hive for breeeding.
Alec

 

[gill68]

thanks for the reassuring words from everyone.

I must admit that my head was in a bit of a spin after I had been there for 2 hours!

What are thoughts on feeding the nuc?

I wasn't sure about leaving the unsealed q cell, but the logic was that if the virgin either didn't get mated or keeled over with cold on a flight, at least there was one more go; I think that was what was going through my head anyway!

At least I did put a few bait boxes around yesterday aswell so maybe there's a tiny chance of catching a swarm again.
I wish I had taken the apidea along that I bought last year.


I just hope the weather improves and the wind dies down a bit.

 

[richardbees]

I just hope the weather improves and the wind dies down a bit.

...an extract from the Captain's Log of HMS Beekeeper - found in the wreckage after the vessel foundered off Cape Horn!

 

[gill68]

too true!