Nightmare start to Queen Rearing

[olriley]

Thought I’d try this year, got myself a Nicot system and yesterday was the day to introduce my best Queen to the rearing frame.

She is marked and lo and behold when I pull out the Nicot frame, she is sitting there within the device! Good start, but where did I put the little excluder cover? Blast, in the shed. I backtrack the fifty yards or so, frame in hand, and return to the hive to fit the cover. Of course now she has wind that somethings up and is playing hide and seek in the little crevices of the frame.

I am not still not that confident at grasping Queen... finally manage to catch her by the wings and plonk her back in the Nicot, just reaching for the excluder cover and .... BzZzzzzzz .... she’s flying!

Everything happened very quickly. It was a short flight down towards the front of the hive, but did she go straight in the front entrance, or is she in the grass? Let me look.... can’t see her... no, I might be treading on her... now the sun is in my eyes, I’m sweating buckets and the bees are starting to get bothered. Time to close up and go for a cuppa.

Two hours later I go through the brood box again, bees are fairly quiet but I can’t see her. Confidence at a low ebb so don’t persevere after first run through the frames.

Think I’ll leave it a couple of days and check if they are queenright or if I am faced with emergency queen cells!!!

Got to try these things, learn from failures and try again! Off on holiday next week though.... is August too late for Queen rearing? Assuming I make up fairly strong nucs? I am in the clement Home Counties.

 

[Eyeman]

If she got mated from that hive then she will almost certainly be back in the hive when you next inspect.
My next bunch of graft go in on 21st July.
The ones after that 10th Aug which will be my last round this year.
Plan my grafting around our holidays

 

[SDM]

You should be able to tell from the sound in the hive by now.

 

[olriley]

If she got mated from that hive then she will almost certainly be back in the hive when you next inspect.

My next bunch of graft go in on 21st July.

The ones after that 10th Aug which will be my last round this year.

Plan my grafting around our holidays

Thanks for that advice.
She was bought in this year, already mated, so had never flown here before.
I am not hopeful... I had a look tonight, they were quiet until I removed the QX... then a fair hum/roar. Couldn’t see Q in hive.
How long before you expect to see EQC’s being drawn out?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Eyeman]

Thanks for that advice.
She was bought in this year, already mated, so had never flown here before.
I am not hopeful... I had a look tonight, they were quiet until I removed the QX... then a fair hum/roar. Couldn’t see Q in hive.
How long before you expect to see EQC’s being drawn out?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All is not lost
She was last seen flying towards the hive entrance so bets are still on that she will have done back inside.
Dave Cushman's web site gives a good description about Em QC's.
http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/emergencycells.html

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I have had a few young queens fly when trying to mark them. Close up and walk away. They have always come back to the hive OK. Except for one this year.

 

[olriley]

Gah, she’s gone. EQC’s in there today. Split off a nuc with one in for insurance and left a couple in the hive... well, you live and learn!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Gah, she’s gone. EQC’s in there today. Split off a nuc with one in for insurance and left a couple in the hive... well, you live and learn!

Importantly what lessons (in order of priority) have you learned?

 

[olriley]

Importantly what lessons (in order of priority) have you learned?

-think through all the possibilities you might encounter and double check you have all the equipment necessary
- be extra careful with young queens that were mated elsewhere and thus unfamiliar with the apiary
-should have stuck her in a cage when I first saw her rather than walking about the apiary with her on the frame getting roused
- practice handling drones and less important queens, specifically grasping them about the thorax whilst they are scurrying along the comb
-don’t beekeep with a hangover (probably root cause of it all!).

Those off the top of my head!

 

[garysbee]

Buy a couple of queen clips they make for easy catching

 

[Eyeman]

-think through all the possibilities you might encounter and double check you have all the equipment necessary
- be extra careful with young queens that were mated elsewhere and thus unfamiliar with the apiary
-should have stuck her in a cage when I first saw her rather than walking about the apiary with her on the frame getting roused
- practice handling drones and less important queens, specifically grasping them about the thorax whilst they are scurrying along the comb
-don’t beekeep with a hangover (probably root cause of it all!).

Those off the top of my head!

One of Michael Palmer's video's shows him releasing the workers from the transport cage with just his thumb over the entrance whilst he blows into the cage to presumably get them running around. He's then left with the queen to place under a push in cage. All in the open air!
I tried this on our decking a while back as I was banned from the house with the cry ' I don't want any bees flying around here'. Anyway the predictable happened and the queen escaped before I could get my thumb over the entrance and she did beautiful ever expanding cicles into the blue sky. As the escaped workers seemed to be doing some orientating around where I had released them I decided to put the cage on the table and a few workers flew onto the cage. With my queen wasp catching net in hand I sat waiting for 10 minutes. Low and behold the queen came back to close to where I had put the cage and with a swoop of the net she was caght and back in the cage.
So Don't give up hope if the queen flies off! Sit and wait with a net as she may return
Since then I've always dunked the cage in water before removing the worker and no further mishaps.