Rob55
House Bee
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2012
- Messages
- 232
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- N.Ireland
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 4
Some of you may remember my hive swarmed last month and I was left with 2 charged queen cells. I inspected 3 weeks ago to find both had emerged and it looked like they may have swarmed again, as the number of bees in the box had drastically fallen, covering only 4-5 frames where they had previously been covering all 11 frames.
I inspected today for the first time since finding the newly emerged queen cells, and found brood in all stages though it was confined to the middle part of the 2 innermost frames. So I am not sure if the queen is only just kicking off, or whether she is just not very prolific - time will tell. On a side note - I moved them to the heather last month (despite advice against doing so) and the bees have piled in lots of stores, so hopefully this will put them in good stead for the winter. I plan to remove them in a fortnight once the heather is finished and return them to my apiary.
So I am now left with a decision - do I use a chemical treatment for varroa (Ulster BKA advise a Thymol based treatment) or should I leave them alone to allow the queen get on with building up the number of bees to carry through the winter?
Rob
I inspected today for the first time since finding the newly emerged queen cells, and found brood in all stages though it was confined to the middle part of the 2 innermost frames. So I am not sure if the queen is only just kicking off, or whether she is just not very prolific - time will tell. On a side note - I moved them to the heather last month (despite advice against doing so) and the bees have piled in lots of stores, so hopefully this will put them in good stead for the winter. I plan to remove them in a fortnight once the heather is finished and return them to my apiary.
So I am now left with a decision - do I use a chemical treatment for varroa (Ulster BKA advise a Thymol based treatment) or should I leave them alone to allow the queen get on with building up the number of bees to carry through the winter?
Rob