Queen cells

[jenkinsbrynmair]

But the presence of multiple QC's would suggest something a bit more serious?

 

[user 819]

Yes it should do but one needs to be certain first, I try not to assume until sure.

 

[Nick Lang]

Okay....so I have just been in and removed about 20 or so mix of queen cells and cups.....at least half of them had larvae in.....I have checked for any queens ...I couldn't see any.....but then again....there are sooo many bees in the hive I could easily have missed them....there is no sign of the original queen with the white dot that came with the nuc..along with so many cells I guess it's the hive desperately trying to re-queen...as a matter of fact...I hadn't seen the queen for the last two inspections...I was already starting to worry about her before the appearance of queen cells.

I will try to upload some pics now in a minute...as we say here

 

[Nick Lang]

Before I started.

 

[Nick Lang]

View attachment 28148View attachment 28149View attachment 28148View attachment 28148View attachment 28149View attachment 28150View attachment 28148

 

[Nick Lang]

 

[Nick Lang]

 

[Nick Lang]

 

[Nick Lang]

I hope they all came out....I am not the best at technology.

 

[Nick Lang]

Oh ....no eggs that I could see...and all the open cells with larvae in were more developed size larvae...no tiny little ones....

 

[Erichalfbee]

These are emergency cells.
If those were my bees I reckon the queen would be safe. Where did you order her from in the end?
PS
I would take out the apiguard now and worry about varroa after your queen is laying well
Maybe get somebody to OAV but definitely not thymol.

 

[Nick Lang]

Northumberland Honey bee company....they were the ones who got back to me quickest and were the ones quickest to be able to get a mated Buckfast VSH queen.

I'll take out the aptiguard...what's wrong with thymol in this situation?

 

[Erichalfbee]

The bees don’t like it and it can put queens off lay. I wouldn’t risk anything to upset her acceptance either. A small feed of syrup would help.
How much £££ was she?

 

[Nick Lang]

Okay...that makes sense....she was £40 plus about £7 for next day special delivery....about the same price as most places to be fair...only reason I bought from them is they were very quick

 

[Erichalfbee]

Okay...that makes sense....she was £40 plus about £7 for next day special delivery....about the same price as most places to be fair...only reason I bought from them is they were very quick

That’s a good price. I was looking at these from another supplier. Let us know how she does next season.

 

[Nick Lang]

Absolutely....I've waited for years to actually pull the trigger on getting bees...so am ignorant of much but eager to learn
I'll update when she arrives...I am bound to have a million questions before next season

 

[Nick Lang]

So.....the Queen arrived today in a little cage....she had about a dozen or so bees in the cage with her for company....she looks good and healthy.....so went through all the frames....cut out another 5 or 6 queen cells/cups.....all frames back into the box.....I think they're getting a bit annoyed with me going in, shaking the frames and generally messing them about...they were pretty upset with me today.....placed the queen cage at the too next to a large patch of capped brood cells.
Crown on and gave them a small sugar syrup feed 1:1 (600g/600ml).

Have now left them to chill out for two days.
Next step I will pull of the plastic tab on the cage...then let them eat through the fondant plug...and leave for a week.

Anything else I need to think about? Or is it just leave them to it?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Stick the cage between the frames when you take the tab out.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Which I would do 24 hours after initially putting her in there

 

[Erichalfbee]

Which I would do 24 hours after initially putting her in there

And I like to wait three days.