alynewbee
House Bee
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2011
- Messages
- 153
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Near Rotherham
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 2
Hi All,
Oh dear, just when I thought things were under control.
I've just got one hive, and inpections have been weekly and all fine so far. But I have a very elusive queen. She was new last year and I've only ever seen her once and it was a pretty chilly day so I didn't want to take her out to mark her (bad decision!) We've had a lovely week of weather this week. I inspected 7 days ago and saw no queen cells, just a few play cups, nothing in them so I left them alone. Today though, I had two sealed queen cells! I obviously missed them last week. Try as I might, I could not find the queen. I went through the box three times and could not find her. Bees were getting pretty cheesed off by then. There were absolutely thousands and thousands of bees - seemed like not even the slightest reduction in numbers, and there's someone home all the time to observe so I think that (hope that) they have not swarmed.
So this is what I did (gulp...) I went through the brood box, and frame by frame shook off all the bees into the bottom of the box. Then I inspected each frame for queen cells and removed them along with any unsealed ones I found (two sealed and quite a few unsealed). Bees pretty fuming by this stage. I've now put on another super, shut up shop and bees are going back in.
So this is what I'm thinking. a) my bees have swarmed and I've just removed any possibility of them bringing on a new queen (oh no!) or b) I might just have got lucky and the queen is still in there (there were definitely eggs and BIAS) when I looked today) - in which case I need to leave them alone until next week and go in prepared for doing an AS without finding the queen. or c) some other horror that I have not forseen.
Does anyone have any words of wisdom? I'd really appreciate the voice of experience on this.
Many thanks
Aly
Oh dear, just when I thought things were under control.
I've just got one hive, and inpections have been weekly and all fine so far. But I have a very elusive queen. She was new last year and I've only ever seen her once and it was a pretty chilly day so I didn't want to take her out to mark her (bad decision!) We've had a lovely week of weather this week. I inspected 7 days ago and saw no queen cells, just a few play cups, nothing in them so I left them alone. Today though, I had two sealed queen cells! I obviously missed them last week. Try as I might, I could not find the queen. I went through the box three times and could not find her. Bees were getting pretty cheesed off by then. There were absolutely thousands and thousands of bees - seemed like not even the slightest reduction in numbers, and there's someone home all the time to observe so I think that (hope that) they have not swarmed.
So this is what I did (gulp...) I went through the brood box, and frame by frame shook off all the bees into the bottom of the box. Then I inspected each frame for queen cells and removed them along with any unsealed ones I found (two sealed and quite a few unsealed). Bees pretty fuming by this stage. I've now put on another super, shut up shop and bees are going back in.
So this is what I'm thinking. a) my bees have swarmed and I've just removed any possibility of them bringing on a new queen (oh no!) or b) I might just have got lucky and the queen is still in there (there were definitely eggs and BIAS) when I looked today) - in which case I need to leave them alone until next week and go in prepared for doing an AS without finding the queen. or c) some other horror that I have not forseen.
Does anyone have any words of wisdom? I'd really appreciate the voice of experience on this.
Many thanks
Aly