Poor mating results/ queens going missing

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gp125john

New Bee
Joined
Feb 8, 2019
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Location
Staffordshire
Hive Type
None
I have done a few splits this spring but sadly have had terrible results with new queens mating or just dissappearing altogether.

This has not been an issue in previous years, when the weather has been less favourable. Its pretty depressing. Has anyone else experienced this or does anyone have any ideas?
 
I have done a few splits this spring but sadly have had terrible results with new queens mating or just dissappearing altogether.

This has not been an issue in previous years, when the weather has been less favourable. Its pretty depressing. Has anyone else experienced this or does anyone have any ideas?

My hives - in North Staffs- have only had enough drones around in teh past two weeks for me to start Queen Rearing.

And the prior two weeks here were cold , with some frosts.. Not ideal mating weather..
 
I had three hives I have requeened end of April. Inspected today and all three returned mated and laying well.
 
All good down my way and a few up and running already, I put a big batch out yesterday into nucs and should see some results in a couple of weeks.
 
In London - have had some success with the first batch. Got some in mini mating nucs and hoping for some mated queens soon..fingers crossed.
 
I checked the mini nucs today and the queens are laying. I also made this 4 way 2 frames mating hive for the next batch of queens next week.
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I have some bluetits that have been feeding their babies on my bees. They tend to choose the drones, but some of the queens have gone missing in action too. It looks like the birds have eaten them as they return from mating flights.
 

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