queen flight

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whiteoakjill

New Bee
Joined
Apr 29, 2010
Messages
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Location
oxfordshire
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
10
I made two nucs 3 1/2 weeks ago, checked yesterday for laying queen.
Nuc 1 just in lay only eggs mostly upright.
Nuc 2 sister of above saw queen but no eggs.
Today the whole nuc 2 is out on the front of the box, at first thought robbing going on, opened up lid revealing no bees inside. As unsure and worried they were off gently smoked bees back inside. Is this going to be gone or would it be the queen leaving on a mating flight? Would it be my disturbance yesterday that could have caused this?

For comparison nuc 1 today bees coming and going steadily no fanning for heat and the two are within 5 yards of each other.
 
Lets be correct here. They were splits, not nucs. A nuc should have a laying queen and be a self-contained colony albeit a small one needing watching and possibly some TLC. What you had were some bees with, presumably, a queen cell. Not in the same league.

If they were virgin queens you 'ran in', then if on a mating flight she is getting close to her 'change-by' date, or time is approaching to unite with the other colony.

Information is sparse so just guessing here.

Regards, RAB
 
rab if information is sparse please ask for the extra information you need
 
whiteoakjill

Just read back through your previous posts.

I am thinking they were not so strong when made up as splits? - possibly a lot of the bees either returned to the parent hive - presumably all three are on the same site - and a lot will be dead by now due to natural attrition?

How many frames of bees are there now? How much brood was transferred when the splits were made?

I would be considering extra brood from the parent hive, if that is still strong, to keep the new colonies going and give them a 'leg up'. Hatching bood would be best and a little open brood (not so much without extra house bees) might help occupy your non-laying colony, assuming it is still queenright (things can change, but likely she is still there one day later). Just swapping hatched brood frames back to the parent colony should be OK as they are all the same bees, health-wise. More house bees might be a help for them, but hatching brood is easier.

I would likely be considering re-uniting and starting again if she is not laying in a week or so, but you know when she was due to emerge (from the age of the larva when transferred).

Now the OSR has gone (if there was any nearby) is a good time to induce a few supercedure cells with a view to using just one or two for increase of a strong colony. Things need to be pushed on now, before the wasps potentially become a problem with smaller colonies.

Regards, RAB
 

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