ouch

[wightbees]

Just about to put my rubber gloves on i thought i will put the matches in my poket first and ouch !! Cut my thumb about a inch slit from my hive tool
Is'nt it sharp , does it need to be that sharp ?
Lucky i had some first aid tape, to tape it up with.
The hive tool was not in the same pocket but the wrong way up, but i find the hive tool pocket a waste of time to be honest.
But atleast i didn't get stung

On the inspection i found a few more Q cells , getting use to finding these now.Last frame is still being worked on and they have not thought about moving up
Brood on 8 frames in different stages and a bit more Drone cells.
stores 2 frames full and the last frame empty but the bees seem to be working on this frame.

Do you think they will start to move up soon ??

 

[Polyanwood]

Ouch! best to keep your hive tool in your hand.

When you say queen cells do you mean empty queen cups or charged cells with white creamy royal jelly and larvae in them. The first not problem, the second, you need to do something.

 

[jimbeekeeper]

Is'nt it sharp , does it need to be that sharp ?

I was always told that a blunt tool was more dangerous to use than a sharp one!

Better to have it sharp and know it is than wish you had a sharp tool (Confucius says)

On the inspection i found a few more Q cells , getting use to finding these now.

You might want to investigate that a bit more or as Poly say clarify their type.

 

[andypigeon]

i did the same thing last year across my hand hurt like hell

 

[wightbees]

the first time i removed one QC i did notice that it had white stuff when i removed it.
I sort of cut it with the hive tool and noticed this white goo .
I have not really looked for anything mainlly because my smoker keeps going out so i just cut them out without much damage to comb and wait about 6 days .then do the same again .

 

[Tom Bick]

Just about to put my rubber gloves on i thought i will put the matches in my poket first and ouch !! Cut my thumb about a inch slit from my hive tool
Is'nt it sharp , does it need to be that sharp ?
Lucky i had some first aid tape, to tape it up with.
The hive tool was not in the same pocket but the wrong way up, but i find the hive tool pocket a waste of time to be honest.
But atleast i didn't get stung

On the inspection i found a few more Q cells , getting use to finding these now.Last frame is still being worked on and they have not thought about moving up
Brood on 8 frames in different stages and a bit more Drone cells.
stores 2 frames full and the last frame empty but the bees seem to be working on this frame.

Do you think they will start to move up soon ??

Your bees are intent on swarming one day you will miss a QC. So as your bees are not wanting to move into your new hive why not try an AS swarm on them and use the new hive that way you can reunite into that hive at a later date.

 

[Polyanwood]

Well if you have queen cells with white goo in every week, it is a miracle they haven't swarmed yet... or perhaps they have???

Are you is IOW?? Do you need a bee buddy?

Best wishes,
Poly

 

[wightbees]

I'm not sure if theres enough bees to split also i have no drawn comb on new hive and the frames in the main hive are different so how would i do a AS Swarm ?

 

[wightbees]

Poly , yes i live on the isle of wight.
the main queen is still there as she is marked green.

 

[Tom Bick]

I'm not sure if theres enough bees to split also i have no drawn comb on new hive and the frames in the main hive are different so how would i do a AS Swarm ?

Hi wightbees you may not be sure but they are and the QC are saying yes they are happy with it. You only want foundation in the new hive apart from the frame with the queen on after all when they swarm they dont even have that.

 

[Polyanwood]

It doesn't sound right.

I was hoping an IOW beek would step up and offer to have a look.

Don't get mad... but sometimes people mix up drone cells with queen cells. If you are sure you have charged queen cells every week and the colony is small, I would be tempted to requeen.

Poly

 

[wightbees]

These are QC for sure, as for charged up i am not 100% sure.
I will take my camera next visit and take pics of them.
The frames are deep about 10" and the bees cover about 8/9 frames out of 11
lots of new house bees on todays visit.

 

[Tom Bick]

Sorry missing something what is the size of the original hive in relation to the new hive. So frame from old hive wont fit into new hive?

 

[wightbees]

The main hive with bees in is something like a comercial. the hive i am trying to get them to move up into is a MD. But it's not happening

 

[Tom Bick]

If my memory serves me right the commercial is smaller than the md. If this is the case then an AS is possible it will be the case that the frame with the queen will be a bit to small for the md.

 

[wightbees]

my BB size is 6.25" the mod comercial is 10" deep
I am not using MD BB deeps but MD shallows @ 6.25" deep by 19" wide top bar
I was planing on using 2 for BB as a double

 

[Tom Bick]

Ok then go with your two md shallows as your BB and fit in the commercial frame and once the bees are established remove it. It is a bit outside my experience mixing different types of hive but a bit of thinking outside the box often works good look whitbees but the one thing I do know is from what you have said is your bees want to swarm

 

[VEG]

They will be making their home elsewhere if you dont do an as soon. You said in your first post you are getting used to finding queen cells. They will swarm soon even if the cells are not fully capped. You will eventually miss a cell and lose the swarm.

 

[wightbees]

Ok i will have to think about this a bit. I will have a closer look at the next lot of QC and report back on the forum.

Edit. i just worried that theres not enough bees to split the hive up .

 

[VEG]

If you have 8 frames of brood in your hive as said in post 1 then there will be enough bees in there, as there should be enough nurse bees and flying bees to keep the brood warm and fed as well. Dont keep cutting out queen cells as you may do it one day to find they have swarmed and there wont be any eggs in the hive for them to rear a queen from.