beekake
House Bee
This summer, I intend to use a Cloake board to get my bees rearing queens. This is because last year's experience of removing a queen to make a queenless starter colony proved to be difficult for a few reasons. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the Cloake method, but I'm puzzled as to why, after getting queen cells started in the upper brood box and removing the barrier between the brood boxes, the colony doesn't swarm when the first cell is sealed (as they would do if the queen cells had been drawn 'naturally' during normal swarming behaviour).
Is it because they then normalise again on reintroduction of queen substance? If so, why don't they tear down the queen cells?
Any suggestions? I just want to make sure my queen rearing experience this year builds positively on last year!
Is it because they then normalise again on reintroduction of queen substance? If so, why don't they tear down the queen cells?
Any suggestions? I just want to make sure my queen rearing experience this year builds positively on last year!