aseeryl
New Bee
I ordered a Buckfast queen last week, to increase stock (turn 1 hive into 2). In anticipation, I separated a "nuc" into the spare - 2.5 frames brood capped and uncapped + (minimal) eggs on Sunday. Anyway, queen arrived yesterday, I think maybe I jumped the gun, and there were a few queen cells, I squished these and left the cage on top of the centre frames.
Had a look this am (warm and sunny) there were a large number of bees surrounding the cage. Had another look and found a further possible QC - squished this. Having moved the cage to a corner, this became covered with resident bees.
BTW- yesterday I sprayed them with hive clean and today I've done a sugar syrup/vanilla spray
Problem - does this indicate that the new queen has not been accepted - the surrounding bees seem to come off easily- or should I wait till tomorrow to take the plastic plug out??
Had a look this am (warm and sunny) there were a large number of bees surrounding the cage. Had another look and found a further possible QC - squished this. Having moved the cage to a corner, this became covered with resident bees.
BTW- yesterday I sprayed them with hive clean and today I've done a sugar syrup/vanilla spray
Problem - does this indicate that the new queen has not been accepted - the surrounding bees seem to come off easily- or should I wait till tomorrow to take the plastic plug out??