Queen Piping for a week now!

[Beefriendly]

I read somewhere recently that there are six ways of doing something. Three will work, three won’t, one will be dangerous. This is why you get so many answers when you ask a question. Yesterday, I went to see a mentor. Not my mentor, sadly, as she lives too far away, and picked up many nuggets. Example... when building a hive stand, if you make the width of the gap the same as a frame, you can place your frames in there when inspecting a hive. It’s not the only way of building a stand of course. She also said she never stops thinking and questioning. By testing what we’ve been told is the correct way, we avoid learning other ways of doing something which may prove better. Discussion is the best way of testing. I have learned over previous years of study that no two years appear the same. Last year there were few swarms. This year is predicted to be extremely swarmy. I am sure many people, despite their best and most knowledgeable efforts and resources, will be challenged. So we should keep talking and keep questioning and we might find a way that works better for our personal circumstances.

What an excellent positive post.

 

[thedozzer]

Beagle23, Bakerbee and Julie in Ash, thank you for your encouragement & positive advice.

Been working on friends farm last 2 days and not been home, came home this evening to find that the swarm has been in the same tree the last 3 days and still there, why would they still be around as the weather is turning cold & wet tomorrow.is 3 days normal or maybe they don't have a queen?

They are quite high up but think i can get a ladder to them, but i dont want to destroy the tree, what can i use to get them in, i don't have a nuc so its cardboard box untill i can.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

why would they still be around as the weather is turning cold & wet tomorrow.is 3 days normal or maybe they don't have a queen?

Have had a swarm sat in an inaccessible tree for over a week - wind, rain, the lot, they eventually just flew off.
Sometimes swarms just cannot reach a consensus so they just sit there - sometimes until they die, or just draw comb in the open.
If you can get to them, shake them into the box, sometimes smoke will shift them, or brush them in.

 

[thedozzer]

Have had a swarm sat in an inaccessible tree for over a week - wind, rain, the lot, they eventually just flew off.
Sometimes swarms just cannot reach a consensus so they just sit there - sometimes until they die, or just draw comb in the open.
If you can get to them, shake them into the box, sometimes smoke will shift them, or brush them in.

Thank You for info JB, will see what i can do for them in the morning.
they seem to be teaching me something new every other day.

 

[enrico]

Had a swarm in a tree so long it built comb. Will try and find the photos
E

 

[thedozzer]

Quick update
We got the swarm down! but it was more like the Chuckle brothers does swarm collecting than most would do on here, and as they had tucked into the branch, only got about 2/3rds of the bees and it was starting to rain, dropped the bucket the were in on the way down the ladder and some are still flying round the tree but we have left the Nuc on a table at the bottom (had to go an buy a nuc again!!) didn't see a queen but it was all getting a bit hectic, got stung about 4 times but that was my fault for crushing bees under the secateurs handles, rolling bees against branches and being clumsy, but did it without gloves as i do with inspections!

Just to confuse matters even more, the primary hive that the original Swarm, this swarm and a split came from still has a queen merrily piping away!! she is getting quite noisy and i managed to record it, the sound is poor there is no vid as it was a quick phone out the pocket job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs9rFMebDBk

 

[beeno]

Quick update
Just to confuse matters even more, the primary hive that the original Swarm, this swarm and a split came from still has a queen merrily piping away!! she is getting quite noisy and i managed to record it, the sound is poor there is no vid as it was a quick phone out the pocket job. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs9rFMebDBk

Hi thedozzer, You are doing great hanging in there - all part of 'the baptism of fire' of beekeeping. Nice recording of queen piping. Hopefully the parent colony is sufficiently weakened so there will be a fight to the death should there be more than one virgin still left in the colony! I am with Bill in telling newbies the fundamentals. Most of you are men so I am sure you can 'suck it up'. Still early in the season so hopefully you can get some honey. Best of luck.

 

[thedozzer]

Had a swarm in a tree so long it built comb. Will try and find the photos
E

Hi enrico had a look at the remnants of the branches we fished out of the Nuc today, not sure if they had done it in the Nuc or on the tree but we had small bits of brace comb.

Hi thedozzer, You are doing great hanging in there - all part of 'the baptism of fire' of beekeeping. Nice recording of queen piping. Hopefully the parent colony is sufficiently weakened so there will be a fight to the death should there be more than one virgin still left in the colony! I am with Bill in telling newbies the fundamentals. Most of you are men so I am sure you can 'suck it up'. Still early in the season so hopefully you can get some honey. Best of luck.

Thanks beeno, i have looked after livestock over the years and even run a stable yard for a friend, its just the first livestock I've come across that you feel like you have very little control over, even when you follow advice, they are not the worst things i have had to deal Im sure i will get there in the end, there is some un-sealed honey frames in the super so if the new queen is Ok there is time to make good.

 

[Bakerbee]

How sexist, "most of you are men' how do you know? It just comes down to common courtesy despite your gender.

 

[beeno]

How sexist, "most of you are men' how do you know? It just comes down to common courtesy despite your gender.

There are 7 men and 3 women in this thread. Sexism does not exist on this forum most of the abuse is men on men.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Had a swarm in a tree so long it built comb. Will try and find the photos
E

I helped out the Selby Beekeepers last year when a tree was due to be removed from school grounds prior to building extension. That colony had simply built around and embedded the comb around the branches at the top of the trunk. Their only shelter was leaves from the canopy above. There's an item on their site about it. There was so much embedded twig/branch we stripped off the branches where they emerged from the wax, cut the crown out of the tree and placed it in a 14x12 box to remove and set a box of frames and foundation above for the bees to build up into at leisure.
Last time I enquired the colony had survived the winter and are now happy in their new home which is in an apiary far from the original site.

 

[thedozzer]

Update No 2. More Bad beekeeping.

So we inspected the old queen in her new hive = 8 frames of 14x12 capped brood in 3 weeks, some drone comb on the outside and she i laying like a train. but she doesn't like laying on the wired bit of the foundation so we have big "W" on all the capped brood! suppers on next week.

1st nuc, all good, saw new queen, no eggs but calm, just her empty cell, probably not mated yet as its been cold, and she has only emerged in last 2 weeks. leave for another 3-4 weeks or replace with Buckfast?? as had a call that some are ready.

Now the Original hive with the piping queen, there are plenty of workers and stores but no eggs, but as we are going though the frames, we can still hear the queen piping her little head off, so we go though carefully and find 3 queen cells, 2 just about to emerge! so we open one, it tries to run off but squish.
Open another and its a nearly finishes grub with dark eyes but white body so we throw it to the floor, as we do so the piping queen decides we have done her a favour and opened the cell for her, she is now going to take her opportunity to grab hold of it and start stinging it, so we now have the grub, remnants of the QC and queen in the bluebell leaves!! i eventually spot her and gently get her up of the floor, but she has quite a run around my hand, i daren't try and pick her off with my fingers, as i am a bit of an oaf, get her back onto a frame but now some of the bees come and have a run round my had as well! Panic over.

Squish 1 more emerging queen that does a valiant effort to run off before the other half's hive tool dispatches her (she did not like doing it, but told her its part of good husbandry) and put the hive back together, and now the queen has had a successful stabbing session she will stop piping and get on with mating, and think we may have stopped another 2 or 3 swarms.

Starting to feel like we have a little more control again, just have to see if all the new queens have mated successfully or we change one for a GM.

PS the other half has just come in from the garden to tell me the queen is still piping.

 

[thedozzer]

I helped out the Selby Beekeepers last year when a tree was due to be removed from school grounds prior to building extension. That colony had simply built around and embedded the comb around the branches at the top of the trunk. Their only shelter was leaves from the canopy above. There's an item on their site about it. There was so much embedded twig/branch we stripped off the branches where they emerged from the wax, cut the crown out of the tree and placed it in a 14x12 box to remove and set a box of frames and foundation above for the bees to build up into at leisure.
Last time I enquired the colony had survived the winter and are now happy in their new home which is in an apiary far from the original site.

Thanks for that GJ , had a look at the site https://www.selbybeekeepers.org.uk/post/a-new-home-for-the-ferals they had done a good job of building in the tree, think ours had similar aspirations.

 

[beeno]

Update No 2. More Bad beekeeping.
Starting to feel like we have a little more control again, just have to see if all the new queens have mated successfully or we change one for a GM.

PS the other half has just come in from the garden to tell me the queen is still piping.

Well done you two. Need to give her a couple of days to realise she is the queen of the castle - hopefully.