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

[jeff33]

Talk of bad timing, I had the feeling I needed to inspect one of my hive which build up really quickly. So I opened up this afternoon and found several queen cups loaded with eggs and one with jelly in. Problem is I am off on holiday saturday and working all day tomorrow so action had to be taken otherwise they would have swarmed by the time I come back.

I opted for destroying all the queen cups, loaded or not. I know this is not the way to go but that should delay the process until I come back. On my return I will either Demaree or split. For now that's all I can think about. Any other suggestion please?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Having destroyed the queen cells the bees will probably make more and may well make them on older larvae so that they are ready to swarm in fewer days.
I might have done a modified Snelgrove (Wally Shaw) as you don't have to do any manipulation or examination of either box for a week. How long are you away for?

 

[dan3008]

See if a friend near by can keep an eye on them, and do a split if needed? That's really bad timing :/

 

[snelgrove]

Charged queen cups already, saying that here were are about 3 weeks to a month behind southern England and wales Something which is not recognised on this forum

 

[jeff33]

Having destroyed the queen cells the bees will probably make more and may well make them on older larvae so that they are ready to swarm in fewer days.
I might have done a modified Snelgrove (Wally Shaw) as you don't have to do any manipulation or examination of either box for a week. How long are you away for?

I am off for a week so the earliest I can check will be a week sunday. I have a cloake board no snelgrove, I wonder if I should do a demaree tomorrow evening before I leave and get someone to check in the week.

 

[snelgrove]

I am off for a week so the earliest I can check will be a week sunday. I have a cloake board no snelgrove, I wonder if I should do a demaree tomorrow evening before I leave and get someone to check in the week.

clip the queen

 

[Erichalfbee]

I am off for a week so the earliest I can check will be a week sunday. I have a cloake board no snelgrove, I wonder if I should do a demaree tomorrow evening before I leave and get someone to check in the week.

You don't need a snelgrove board.
Move the colony to another place at least three feet away. Put a new box in its place with preferably drawn frames in it but foundation or a mixture will do.
Go back to original hive and take out a frame of brood. Shake all the bees off and make sure there are NO queen cells. Pop this into the second box on the original site. Put the spare frame to the side of the original box.
See....you don't even need to find the queen until next week when you come back. While you are away the bees will tear down any queen cells in the box with the queen as they have no foraging bees to guide them out to swarm.Find her and put her back in her old hive after you destroy all the emergency cells the bees made. The bees will welcome their old queen back quite happily without you having to cage her.The original box will now make queen cells but they will sort themselves out and you can let them get on with it.

 

[Fatbee]

How strong is the colony?

 

[jeff33]

How strong is the colony?

I overwintered it on 2 supers to build it up as I wanted to raise queens from that one (not anymore)....The 3 boxes are full of bees and I have brood on the deep and 1 super (hardly any on the 2nd super).Most QC were as expected on the middle super (not anymore). I have a few frames of pollen and nectar so I could even do a split tomorrow (I have decided to work from home to sort them out!), shook swarm or demaree.

 

[jeff33]

You don't need a snelgrove board.
Move the colony to another place at least three feet away. Put a new box in its place with preferably drawn frames in it but foundation or a mixture will do.
Go back to original hive and take out a frame of brood. Shake all the bees off and make sure there are NO queen cells. Pop this into the second box on the original site. Put the spare frame to the side of the original box.
See....you don't even need to find the queen until next week when you come back. While you are away the bees will tear down any queen cells in the box with the queen as they have no foraging bees to guide them out to swarm.Find her and put her back in her old hive after you destroy all the emergency cells the bees made. The bees will welcome their old queen back quite happily without you having to cage her.The original box will now make queen cells but they will sort themselves out and you can let them get on with it.

I had to read it 3 times to get it Erichalfbee, the 2 pints of guiness I just had probably didn't help!! Sealed brood or older larvae so they can't raise any cells or it doesn't matter?

 

[jeff33]

Charged queen cups already, saying that here were are about 3 weeks to a month behind southern England and wales Something which is not recognised on this forum

I can't say it has been particularly warm or dry here though. We have had storm after storm throughout January but although it has been pretty cold my bees have been out gathering since the end of February.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Sealed brood or older larvae so they can't raise any cells or it doesn't matter?

Open brood, containing at least some eggs and small larvae.

 

[jeff33]

These bees have a lack of disregard for my mental well-being!
At this time of the year I am concerned about any virgin being raised from the split not being able to mate properly. I need to try and delay the process by a fortnight at least to give them a chance.

 

[Poly Hive]

Put the queen in a nuc and let the rest get on with it.

Some stuff on here I just can't make head nor tail of.

PH

 

[MuswellMetro]

Charged queen cups already, saying that here were are about 3 weeks to a month behind southern England and wales Something which is not recognised on this forum

agree, i have capped OSR honey already, and drones are emerging

 

[Cussword]

You don't need a snelgrove board.
Move the colony to another place at least three feet away. Put a new box in its place with preferably drawn frames in it but foundation or a mixture will do.
Go back to original hive and take out a frame of brood. Shake all the bees off and make sure there are NO queen cells. Pop this into the second box on the original site. Put the spare frame to the side of the original box.
See....you don't even need to find the queen until next week when you come back. While you are away the bees will tear down any queen cells in the box with the queen as they have no foraging bees to guide them out to swarm.Find her and put her back in her old hive after you destroy all the emergency cells the bees made. The bees will welcome their old queen back quite happily without you having to cage her.The original box will now make queen cells but they will sort themselves out and you can let them get on with it.

I would go for that!


.

 

[jeff33]

I like PH option and make a nuc that way my foragers are still bringing in the OSR harvest instead of being demoted to fine wax makers. The other hive will be making emergency cells instead of swarm cells and will not swarm without a queen. If I can't find her I will go for E's method. Thanks for all the advice people.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I like PH option and make a nuc that way my foragers are still bringing in the OSR harvest instead of being demoted to fine wax makers. The other hive will be making emergency cells instead of swarm cells and will not swarm without a queen. If I can't find her I will go for E's method. Thanks for all the advice people.

Hope you're not going away for long - you could have emerged queens in well under a fortnight and a shedful of swarms headed by virgins if not careful.

 

[Erichalfbee]

You're going to have to keep a real close eye on the queens in the making

 

[jeff33]

You're going to have to keep a real close eye on the queens in the making

She already swarmed last year and managed to catch it...I put it down on my inexperience but seen as they are at it yet again so early I will put it down to really swarmy bees + inexperience. I will more than likely replace this queen asap!!

Thinking of it, I will follow E's advice at least I will only have 1 frame of cells to deal with next weekend on my return. I will split the full hive after that!