Queen - next steps

[Vanterrier]

Following my Ejected Queen thread
my plan is now as follows.
As Q ejected 15/7 eggs will have become Larvae and capped by 23/7.
If I inspect on 26th I will find:

Eggs - in which case I have a Q and panic over

Or

No Eggs - more likely and expected

If there's no QC's I am hopelessly Queenless and need to buy a mated Q

If there's QC's I could harvest one (?) and destroy the rest as to save time I will order a new mated Q Anyway

Next day begins new Q introduction process

I have 6 good brood frames so could put one in a Nuc with the harvested Q (or the mated Q???) and allow her to develop from there.

Or do I have it all/part wrong and should be doing something else?

Its my only colony so options are limited.

Your advice will be much appreciated.
Thanks
K

 

[GaryH]

I was in a similar but worse situation. One colony but no brood also two QCs.
I ordered a Mated Queen I wanted to make up a nuc with the new queen and some brood and let one Virgin emerge in the main colony.
I destroyed all supercedure cells bar one 13 days ago. Inspected 7 days ago. VQ had emerged but there were another two QC’s as described m. As there was hardly no brood. I ordered a Buckfast Q and destroyed the QC’s.
I introduced the mated queen two days ago. The bees seemed to accept her. No arching backs to sting and licking inside the Q cage to feed her. Also fanning pheromones
Yesterday I checked again- she’s still ok so the tabs came off.
I’ll not disturb the hive now but check in 8 days hopefully I’ll be Queen Right.
Hope this helps- good luck.

 

[Vanterrier]

Thanks for that Gary, I have been following your posts with interest and wishing you luck along the way. Obviously as a newbee (sic) I am not in a position to advise you myself. Disappointingly I didn't receive any advice on this thread so did what I thought best and did get some useful advice later on.
So, I ordered a Buckfast F1 from BM and introduced her to a nuc I made up from my only Q- colony. They accepted her but started to get murdered by wasps. I moved the Nuc and fitted an "Enrico" entrance which did the trick.
After a week I did a newspaper and Glade unite which went well and a further week saw me consolidate the two BB's back into one. At that stage I could see BIAS and am hopeful I am back on track.
Today I saw the Q and two and a half frames packed out both sides with capped brood, on another frame there was a wee bit of capped brood and larvae on a couple of frames then some uncapped nectar/syrup ( I have been feeding them 1:1 syrup since the Unite) but no honey. A couple of other frames have comb but are empty, the remainder just foundation...
I moved an empty frame between the brood and the nectar/syrup in the hope they will fill it.
I added two Apivar strips and closed up for a week, although I will be monitoring the mite drop for a few days now.

Wish me luck as I reckon I still need it to increase the colony to get it through winter. I'm going to do my damnedest to get them through it...

K

 

[Vanterrier]

Ps there's nothing coming in as far as I can see... one bee with pollen, dozens with nothing (?) In the time I watched.
Forage is scarce nearby, RBWH just about finished. Ivy miles away yet and nothing else much within a 3 mile radius... Heather at one extreme and Balsam at another but it doesn't look like they are flying that far from what I am seeing...
K

 

[GaryH]

Thanks for your note back. Sounds like you’ve been busy doing the right things.
I was puzzled about what you said about your mite treatment though. With the brood break from being Queenless I wouldn’t have expected a big mite problem?
I’m like you; prioritise survival of my only hive through my first winter.
I’m surrounded by an abundance of balsam in full flower as I’m near a waterway within a designated wildlife corridor. Most of the bees are returning full of the tell tale yellow pollen on their backs so I’m hoping they will have enough of their own stores with the BB super I have on the hive which is filling up nicely.
Just need a few thousand more bees.
Good luck

 

[Erichalfbee]

Forage is scarce nearby,

If that’s the case and they have no pollen stores then get a pollen substitute patty on

 

[Erichalfbee]

Disappointingly I didn't receive any advice on this thread

If I inspect on 26th I will find:

If you had told us what you did find after 26th you likely would have had some.

 

[Vanterrier]

If that’s the case and they have no pollen stores then get a pollen substitute patty on

Thanks. Will do

K

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks. Will do

K

But make sure it’s sun not something like Candipolline.
Modern Beekeeping do Apipasta plus which is pretty good

 

[Vanterrier]

Vitafeed ???

 

[Vanterrier]

I was puzzled about what you said about your mite treatment though. With the brood break from being Queenless I wouldn’t have expected a big mite problem?

Well first count from the BP jelly covered tray this morning was 32!
More than I expected tbh.
See what the next 6 days bring...
K

 

[Erichalfbee]

Vitafeed ???

Looks ok.

 

[Vanterrier]

Still waiting for delivery of pollen patties... bank hol but noticed some pollen going in this morning which is good. I will inspect for stores before putting in the patty.

Daily dead mite drop so far...
32,25,61,102,78... ill keep counting for the first week then just sample over the six-ten weeks of treatment looking for a drop in numbers. Its still a small colony so hopefully six weeks should do it with a scratch and move around week 4 ?

K

 

[The Poot]

Still waiting for delivery of pollen patties... bank hol but noticed some pollen going in this morning which is good. I will inspect for stores before putting in the patty.

Daily dead mite drop so far...
32,25,61,102,78... ill keep counting for the first week then just sample over the six-ten weeks of treatment looking for a drop in numbers. Its still a small colony so hopefully six weeks should do it with a scratch and move around week 4 ?

K

Seems to me you’ve done well and if you succeed in getting them through the Winter, you’ll have a proper old sense of satisfaction!
The bees will probably surprise you - they want to survive.
That does seem a lot of varroa considering the size of the colony, so you‘re doing well in keeping a focus on them
Next Spring get yourself a second colony - if you can split this one, you’ll really feel good

 

[Swarm]

Still waiting for delivery of pollen patties... bank hol but noticed some pollen going in this morning which is good. I will inspect for stores before putting in the patty.

Daily dead mite drop so far...
32,25,61,102,78... ill keep counting for the first week then just sample over the six-ten weeks of treatment looking for a drop in numbers. Its still a small colony so hopefully six weeks should do it with a scratch and move around week 4 ?

K

Apivar?
6 - 8 weeks with a recommended further 2 weeks. With those mite numbers I would leave them in for the full ten weeks.

 

[Vanterrier]

Thanks for the encouragement

Yes Apivar strips are in there now so these mite drop numbers are the dead uns. Not the "survey/test" numbers pre- treatment.
Unless I'm mistaken, its the pre-treatment numbers that need to be averaged over 7 days then multiplied by 30 and that number indicates your infestation level... or do I have it all wrong???
Worried now
K

 

[blackcloud]

Drops are a blunt instrument that you don't let yourself get lost in.

 

[Vanterrier]

Fair enough but if these numbers were from a colony that was not (has not) been treated then I could see why they would be considered high.

But these are the numbers after adding a treatment which claims a high hit rate so I would expect high numbers in the first week... no?

K

 

[Vanterrier]

This is from the Thornes catalog...

And I read it to mean, do a drop count to see how bad the infestation is, then treat accordingly.
K

 

[Erichalfbee]

This is from the Thornes catalog...
View attachment 37490
And I read it to mean, do a drop count to see how bad the infestation is, then treat accordingly.
K

Well all I can say is that never works for me. I have had colonies drop very few mites through the omf only to drop hundreds with a vape.
Natural mite drop is totally inaccurate unless you take it over a month
Wherever Thorne got that information from its wrong.
The only accurate measurement is with a sugar roll or better still an alcohol wash.