Ok, what on earth are they playing at??

[MrPea]

So a couple of weeks ago I saw quite a few queen cells, high on the frames, some on the edge, some in the middle of the frames. The brood was a bit bobbly, I assumed she had turned in to a drone layer. I've just been to check, as I thought at least I might find a new queen in there, I'd done the math...what I found were a few queen cells around the edge, some in the middle of frames....and the same frickin queen sitting there with her big ole white blob.

There are a few eggs (I'm rubbish at seeing eggs), a tonne of capped worker brood, some grubs (although I don't know what kind) and reeeeems of bees.

What is she doing? Is she actually fine and I should be taking down these cells? Although there wasn't anything in the ones I could see down. Have I lost the plot? Did I ever have the plot? This girl is going to send me insane

 

[enrico]

Actual queen cells or are you talking queen cups! Just wondered. If real cells then take all down bar two and see what happens, or split hive to move her to another hive with fresh comb and flying bees on same base. See what queen cells do in new hive
E

 

[susbees]

So a couple of weeks ago I saw quite a few queen cells, high on the frames, some on the edge, some in the middle of the frames. The brood was a bit bobbly, I assumed she had turned in to a drone layer. I've just been to check, as I thought at least I might find a new queen in there, I'd done the math...what I found were a few queen cells around the edge, some in the middle of frames....and the same frickin queen sitting there with her big ole white blob.

There are a few eggs (I'm rubbish at seeing eggs), a tonne of capped worker brood, some grubs (although I don't know what kind) and reeeeems of bees.

What is she doing? Is she actually fine and I should be taking down these cells? Although there wasn't anything in the ones I could see down. Have I lost the plot? Did I ever have the plot? This girl is going to send me insane

Get yourself to an apiary meeting/mentor's hives/similar and learn to recognise queen cups, drone cells, worker cells, the various stages of brood, drone in a worker cell; carry a small LED torch/wear glasses/carry a handlens and learn to see eggs (vital if queen not immediately obvious); then the plot will become clearer

 

[MuswellMetro]

Actual queen cells or are you talking queen cups! Just wondered. If real cells then take all down bar two and see what happens, or split hive to move her to another hive with fresh comb and flying bees on same base. See what queen cells do in new hive
E

they must be queen cups as a "couple of weeks ago" any of those if Queen cells would have emerged as virgin queens, they cannot have been charged

Queen cup or play cups, are just instinct of the workers..charged is another matter

remember it is the workers who decide to change the queen not the queen who decides to swarm ,a subtle but very important difference

 

[galileo]

carry a small LED torch

Amen - invaluable, for the extremely rare occasions when the Sun isn't shining. £3 or less from just about anywhere these days.

 

[user 6228]

But even so ... if things go wrong (over crowding, bad laying... etc) they can build full monty queen cells and then if things start to go right again...(you give them extra space, she starts laying etc) they can tear them down.
Bees are not deterministic (if this then always that) but stoachastic ( if this then the probability of that changes)

 

[Willie Bee]

carry a small LED torch

Wouldn't a head torch be a useful idea ... at least it would be easier to use, if your two hands were holding a frame.

I could be talking utter b......t, as I don not as yet have a hive, but as a backpacker, I know how useful such an item can be.

 

[susbees]

Wouldn't a head torch be a useful idea ... at least it would be easier to use, if your two hands were holding a frame.

I could be talking utter b......t, as I don not as yet have a hive, but as a backpacker, I know how useful such an item can be.

Could be useful for grafting if your eyesight is good, but not a whole lot of use if you have more than a hive or two as switching it on and off through a veil with the thick gloves lots like to wear would be awkward to say the least.

Holding a frame with one hand is a vital skill and easy if you use Nationals with the big ears, sorry, lugs

 

[Graham40]

Alternatively they were Queen cells and they have been chilled and are dead.

Make a decision open a couple see if there are dead mummified larve inside. If there are still eggs being laid is the brood patchy? If it is shes probably failing and needs to be replaced.
Either way get rid of the cells they already have q cups or cells let them start again.

Decide on whether to replace your queen or not. Maisiemore still have queens available if you want to buy a replacement queen... they are Greek queens.

 

[Heather]

Go to Tesco (other stores available) and get a level UP stronger specs- just for bee keeping...
My bet is on play cups.

 

[MrPea]

Ta! They may all be cups...I opened a couple and nothing was in them, they were just so much bigger than cups I often see...like, hige tunnel things. Oh well...will keep an eye on them anyway!m a torch is a good idea...think I have an led thing laying around somewhere

 

[Skyhook]

Ta! They may all be cups...I opened a couple and nothing was in them, they were just so much bigger than cups I often see...like, hige tunnel things. Oh well...will keep an eye on them anyway!m a torch is a good idea...think I have an led thing laying around somewhere

This is something I've noticed this year but not seen before- QC's fully drawn, but not charged. Bees getting confused by the weather, perhaps?


.

 

[beeno]

This is something I've noticed this year but not seen before- QC's fully drawn, but not charged. Bees getting confused by the weather, perhaps?


.

Hi Skyhook,
Me too, but I am only in my second year.

 

[user 6228]

This is something I've noticed this year but not seen before- QC's fully drawn, but not charged. Bees getting confused by the weather, perhaps?


.

we have had that as well...they need behavoiurs that can work with uncertainty in weather and forage, to be successful. I dont see it as confusion but rather exposing the way their stocahastic behaviour works.
An example, classicaly we think of rules such as "worker bees dont lay if there is a queen" but that isnt true, we can find workers laying in the prescence of a viable queen.. it may be better expressed as more workers clean up worker laid eggs if there is a queen present and workers lay less.

This fuzzier, probabilistic, group determined behaviour, can cover more situations with more successful outcomes.

Even before the intervention of men Apis melifera was a very sucessful insect. colonising temperate decidous forest as the forests expanded and retreated with glaciation. As a species, "they have been there, done that"..

 

[Skyhook]

we have had that as well...they need behavoiurs that can work with uncertainty in weather and forage, to be successful. I dont see it as confusion but rather exposing the way their stocahastic behaviour works.
An example, classicaly we think of rules such as "worker bees dont lay if there is a queen" but that isnt true, we can find workers laying in the prescence of a viable queen.. it may be better expressed as more workers clean up worker laid eggs if there is a queen present and workers lay less.

This fuzzier, probabilistic, group determined behaviour, can cover more situations with more successful outcomes.

Even before the intervention of men Apis melifera was a very sucessful insect. colonising temperate decidous forest as the forests expanded and retreated with glaciation. As a species, "they have been there, done that"..

Stochastic? Probabalistic? Have you been at that dictionary again?

 

[user 6228]

Stochastic? Probabalistic? Have you been at that dictionary again?

You should hear my application of Fermi-Dirac statistics to Multi-story car parks

 

[madasafish]

You should hear my application of Fermi-Dirac statistics to Multi-story car parks

You cannot attempt to explain your getting lost in a multi story car park by quoting Fermi-Dirac statistics . Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle yes... You know you are driving too fast : you just don't know which side you will crash through..

See http://tinyurl.com/ogy34yf

 

[user 6228]

You cannot attempt to explain your getting lost in a multi story car park by quoting Fermi-Dirac statistics . Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle yes... You know you are driving too fast : you just don't know which side you will crash through..

See http://tinyurl.com/ogy34yf

you asked for it....

Assumptions: each car parking space can only have an occupancy of one..
The car park is uniform with no extra facilities to distinguish each floor (e.g. no entrance to a cinema or railway station)
cars of varying parking energies e.g. a distribution of volvos porsches GTI etc..
enter the car park.

fermi dirac statistics indicate, as you go up up the muliti storey car park, there will be a low, but non zero probability of finding a car parking space until you reach a level where it changes in a few floors to a low, non-zero probabilty of finding a parked car.

This level where the occupancy probabilities swap over is called the fermi level (when these statistics are applied to electron states in a metal)

 

[galileo]

Enrico might have something to add.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

You should hear my application of Fermi-Dirac statistics to Multi-story car parks

Can you give a traffic analysis of optimum use and provision of spaces? I had a lecturer once who reckoned properly analysed provision of toilets in an office block could ensure a seat would always be available and still warm ;-)