now what should I do.

[irishguy]

On 29th April inspection I had 2 very busy colonies and an overwinterd nuc doing well from.a caste gave to me late last season. All surrounded in 4inch insulation for those who haven't been around long. The 2 full hives were all laying great, plenty stores, eggs, larvae, brood etc.. And both on a super.

Couldn't inspect every 7 days because of weather and a few bad incidents in life. Was able to inspect on 13th may at 10am and noticed straight away something wasn't right when I went over to the first hive because few bees shot straight out at me. Anyway, opened it up and soon as I lifted first few frames out, noticed there was no eggs or larvae but still scatters of brood on few frames. Noticed few QCs then closed the hive up before taking last frame of store to insert dummy board. Still lots of bees thou which got me thinking I didn't lose a swarm.

Next hive everything going great thou didn't spot the queen because she wasn't marked and to many bees but plenty of stores, eggs, larvae, brood. Took last frame of broken stores and inserted dummy board.

Next up was the O,W,N, all going good thou was expecting it to have more bees that were there. Spotted the queen while looking for eggs etc.. Gave the 2 frames of stores and added rest of frames with partly drawn comb. I'm thinking maybe feeding would speed things up for this Q to get laying more.

Couldnt go back into the -q again because had a job on which I had to go to. Phoned another beek I know to see if he was interested in wanting the QCs before I killed them all in the next inspection at 7.30pm. At 7.30, the other beek took all but one capped QC, bees were bouncing off us like mad and very agitated.

Was supposed to check hives yesterday morning or at 7ish pm but weather was bad so didn't go in thou did add a new super on the +Q hives as noticed through the poly CB the other was full of bees and 90% frames capped.

Tried another inspection today at 10am and 4pm but the heavens opened, very dull and windy so decided against it. This is now 8 days since last visit and I'm sure that QC has well hatched. I'm wondering now is there anymore QCs in that hive and I'll start getting castes along with the Q swarming.

Just curious as to what would your next move be concerning these hives. One is doing great thou haven't checked for swarming cells because of bad weather, one was -Q last week and other OWN is doing OK thou could do with more bees.

And please no smart 4rse tell me to go read my thread from last year for guidance, have already done this but this year is now different story altogether so thought I'd pop this thread on here for some advice.

P.s, no hand gliding advice please jbm lol

 

[Finman]

.
What to do?....... A summary...

 

[enrico]

There is little you can do. Do normal inspections when the weather improves and see what you have inside each hive. The poor hive may need uniting. The one that has queen cells may need sorting out. Be prepared to do anything that needs doing, be it an AS or split or whatever. You know what you have done wrong so all you can do is try and make the best of what you are left with whatever it may be.
E