Newbie from South Wales

[freak4speed]

Hi all. Just registered on your forum so I can learn more about looking after my bees. Got my first colony late last summer and did lots of research before and after getting them. Fed them right through the Autumn to make sure they had enough stores to get them through the winter. Turns out I must have done something right because my bee inspector said they were the healthiest colony he'd seen so far this year. Anyways, it came to spring and swarming time, and I'm panicking about losing half my colony. So I check my hive regularly and find 11 capped queen cells. Reluctantly I removery 10 and do a walk away split, moving 1 queen cell over to a 2nd hive along with capped brood and a couple of day old eggs with some stores and put in fresh frames and foundation. It was quite worrying waiting to see if it would work out, but it seems to be going ok with the capped cells emerging and returning to the new hive with pollen and they both seem to be thriving. I'm going to leave them another week or two then do a quick check to make sure all ok and try and find the new queen and mark her up. Any info and advice I will always welcome.
Regards Le Freak

 

[Jthebeek]

Don't let your guard down. Continue to check the original hive every 7 days right through to end of July. However my advise would be to not go into the split for at least 30 days. If you upset the mating process you will end up queenless. Plus there is nothing you can do for them until the Queen mates or fails to mate properly. P.s good job on surviving your first winter.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Did you find the original queen to do the A/S? (it's not a walk away split BTW - that's something entirely different)

 

[jeff33]

Reluctantly I removery 10 and do a walk away split, moving 1 queen cell over to a 2nd hive along with capped brood and a couple of day old eggs with some stores and put in fresh frames and foundation.

Do you mean you removed all capped and uncapped brood + 1 QC into a 2nd hive on a different location leaving only the queen + flying bees on the original location (A/S split) or only a few frames + QC? If you have done only the latter you may ease congestion for a while but you haven't stopped their appetite to swarm. Depending how quickly your bees build up they will try again in 2-3 weeks.

You also mentioned seeing 11 CAPPED QC....Are you sure they haven't already swarmed with your old queen? Did you see her or did the hive looked lower in bee numbers?