no eggs larva or brood,did i do right?

[Teemore]

Darren, i have to go through a friend's hive in the not too distant future as it seems to be in a similar position to yours. As yet he hasn't added a test frame and the current weather isn't conducive to an inspection...

Did the wax reach you OK?

 

[biglongdarren]

lifted the foundation in banbridge this morning then took a run on to the toolans in hillsborough for some frames,thank you once again and keep in touch.
Darren

 

[Firefly]

Thanks everyone for sharing your woes - it makes me feel a bit better about mine, so I'll reciprocate

One strong colony with nothing but drone cells - diagnosed by my mentor as Q- and drone-laying workers, rather then drone-laying queen, so beyond redemption

One weaker colony with nothing - no eggs or brood of any kind and could not find a queen

So it's been a bit of an action-packed few days. My mentor offered a frame of eggs, so that got inserted on Friday - a quick peek today looks like a rather small - but nonetheless hope-inducing queen cell. Ironically, of course, if they rear her she may struggle to find drones to mate with

Then today I shook out the drone-laying colony. Many of the flying bees returned to the other hive, but my mentor seemed quite sanguine about that. Set up the now empty (sob) hive in a new location and tonight installed a small colony from fellow BKA members who kindly offered one that they consider surplus-to-requirement

So hope springs eternal and all that; cross everything and hope for the best. The OSR over the hedge is just coming into flower, so if they feel like using that to build up brood rather than generate lots of tricky honey, that's fine with me

 

[biglongdarren]

today there was still no eggs larva or brood in the hive and still 4/5 frames of bees,i went through the hive and took an awful long time to find the queen but i did in the end,got her between my fingers and was looking at her,could have got rid of her there and then but being the twit i am i look and futtered with her till i dropped her back into the hive again,will try again tomorrow!!

Darren

 

[Teemore]

Not looking like too good a day to go looking for queens today Darren, I walked to the office in cold rain and all I can see out of the office windows in Belfast are grey skys..... Heres hoping Newcastle is brighter and you can sort out that hive.

 

[biglongdarren]

What's with all this newcastle malarkey teemore,I am a kilkeel man,hern gutting country and where the real mourne men live
Darren

 

[Teemore]

I stand corrected! Clearly I was thinking about where i would like to have been rather than sitting in my office....