Queen cups..you know how to spoil a holiday! Urgent thoughts needed.

[REDWOOD]

I'll be expecting a call from a pest control officer next week then I would just make a nuc with the queen in it with only sealed brood and the worst you will get is a cast swarm,

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I would just make a nuc with the queen in it with only sealed brood and the worst you will get is a cast swarm,

after the prime and then maybe a colt or two as well if the hive is that densely populated.

 

[jeff33]

What is done is done...I will update (with a tear) on my return next weekend. I can't believe how many bees there are in there, she hasn't stopped laying all winter by the looks of it!

 

[Smudger55]

This is the problem with prolific bees , our country doesn't have good enough weather ...

 

[Erichalfbee]

after the prime and then maybe a colt or two

Now, I've never heard that term

 

[REDWOOD]

From the swedish word kult, applied to boys or half-grown animals.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Now, I've never heard that term

Prime swarm (first to leave the hive whether headed by a mated queen or a virgin) then a cast then a colt - I believe there are other names too.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ah I've called all "afterswarms" casts. Thank you gentlemen. A new bee word learnt today

 

[beeno]

Ah I've called all "afterswarms" casts. Thank you gentlemen. A new bee word learnt today

Here is a few more for you, but not quite in the same context.

Quote from Eva Crane’s book The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting
“Fraser (1958) discussed the beekeeping books written ‘out of experience’, and (1942) compared details in them with those in Eldingen’s 1578 book on skep beekeeping in Lower Saxony (Section 27.21). He suggested that the many similarities represented parts of a common heritage resulting from the introduction of Saxon methods into England after about 500. Eldingen wrote about afterswarms (section 27.21); in England, they were often called casts, and names for some of them in different counties in the early 1900s included: colt, filly; spindle, wheel, hub; lob, spew; squib, bunt and chid (Betts, 1920). It is not known how old these names are.”

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks beeno
I have Eva cranes book. I should read it

 

[jeff33]

This is the problem with prolific bees , our country doesn't have good enough weather ...

Indeed. I thought I did what I could for them to build up late. At my last inspection last year I had left the queen with only 1 frame to lay on, the rest was full of stores....that didn't slow the process at all. Now I am faced with needing splitting in mid-april with not many drones around to mate and a telling off from my other half for having too many hives in the garden. Nucs anyone?

 

[jeff33]

I believe there are other names too.

I could probably think of more colourful terms as well..... Anyone got any tips on managing prolific bees???

 

[Zante]

This is the problem with prolific bees , our country doesn't have good enough weather ...

I've just come back from a holiday in Italy visiting my parents, and now, with (future) beekeeper eyes I'm seeing the VAST bounty that could be collected and how long the season could be.
Flowers, flowers everywhere! I never noticed before how many there are around in trees, unkept fields, olive groves, hedges, etc... and I never noticed how much wisteria is grown there. There was a sea of blue!
And hot weather. I got mildly sunburnt one day when I went trout fishing with my brother. I'm sure bees have been busy for a while there, those few that are kept in Italy...

 

[jeff33]

Update: The queenless hive with forargers has as expected raised some emergency QC and the queenright is doing fine with no swarm while I was away. I didn't see the queen but had fresh eggs. I have now removed the frame of emergency QC and re-united the 2 hives with newspaper so I can have it on 2 deeps and perform a Demaree later on in the season if needed.
One of my other hive also had a few loaded queen cups with jelly so I had to do a split yesterday. This time I have put the queen in a nuc and will leave it grow to make increase. The queenless part can do the rest and raise its own queen.

My other half reckons hives are taking over the garden...I don't know what is is on about!

 

[misterbee82]

Sounds like you might not want to leave them unattended for long. It could result in serious problems.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes I reckon they will be making swarm preps again soon

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Very soon if they're all chucked back in together so quickly.

 

[jeff33]

Very soon if they're all chucked back in together so quickly.

I am gambling on them being busy for a little while drawing out the frames down the bottom deep. If I can manage them like that I may get some honey otherwise the more I will split the less I will get.I mmight consider swapping the queen or taking a couple of virgins to be mated somewhere local with less swarmy bees.