Queenless Hive.

[Marco666]

Very aggressive.

Today I just went near one of my "maybe still queenless hive" and the really tried to kill me. It has always been a very aggressive hive but this time they really went for it. Yesterday there were lots of bees walking around at the front of the hive and at some point they went back in. Might that mean that they are still queenless and angry or that they are just having a go at me?

 

[beeno]

Hi Marco,
I have found that colonies become aggressive when they are requeening themselves. Well, if things are going to plan you should have virgins starting to emerge from your emergency cells from Saturday onwards, so it's all going on! Leave them alone and you can look for eggs from 11th June onwards provided you have had good mating weather. Fingers crossed and all that.

 

[domino]

In that case do NOTHING until four weeks after the eggs were laid (or three and a half weeks after this inspection). .

Top advice, when I started I poked around the hives when they were raising queens then wondered why they always failed.

If I see queen cells I knock them all down other than the one I want, come back a few days later to make sure no other queen cells have been made then leave it alone for four weeks.

 

[Marco666]

Thank you very much. Fingers crossed!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

you can look for eggs from 11th June onwards .

dream on - at least give a beginner a realistic timeline so he doesn't start worrying. You may get lucky and they mate in a couple of weeks (but give her a little time after emergence for her to 'harden up' and get fit for flying) I'd give them three or four weeks - even longer sometimes.

 

[beeno]

I know a lot of you are 'Waiting for Godot', but that is not a good idea in my book especially if you have only left the one queen cell. According to scientificbeekeeping.com you can get laying workers in three weeks. I obviously have more faith in newbies than others.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Put some insulation on the (sealed) crownboard. When the board is warm there will hopefully be brood.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I know a lot of you are 'Waiting for Godot', but that is not a good idea in my book especially if you have only left the one queen cell. According to scientificbeekeeping.com you can get laying workers in three weeks. I obviously have more faith in newbies than others.

you obviously have more faith in reading stuff than practical experience.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hopefully newbies will have the common sense to filter out the rubbish from what happens in the real world

 

[Magwat]

Yes, the books say 3 - 4 weeks but I think it is important for beginners to understand that it is frequently considerably longer than that, especially in parts of the country beyond the balmy south east. In my experience 6 - 7 weeks is not unusual and the queens have been excellent. Patience and weather watching is the game.

 

[Marco666]

Thank you.

Thank you everyone. Much appreciated! Hopefully it will work!

 

[Marco666]

Extracting Honey.

Would it be OK to extract honey from these hives without touching the brood box?
Thank you.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Would it be OK to extract honey from these hives without touching the brood box?
Thank you.

How much honey is there?

 

[Marco666]

The first super is full and capped.

 

[Marco666]

Extracting honey.

The first super is full and capped.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Go for it then

 

[Marco666]

Went for it.

Two hives, 2 gallons and a bit. Quite happy.
Unfortunately I've lost count of how many times one of the hives is swarming. One Thursday, one yesterday. Obviously is not queenless anymore but it's there something wrong with them or me? Probably me. I know I'm a beginner but I'm really struggling with this hive.
Maybe I smell?
Now I'm too worried about the neighbours. They haven't complained yet......but!
I'm going to move them to a apiary.
Thank you everyone.
Very much appreciated.

 

[beeno]

I do have practical experience, but it is not the same one a thousand times. It is important to know the theory of beekeeping otherwise it all ends up as exceptions, as some of the threads on here, which equals a lot of newbies not knowing what the hell is going on!

 

[BeeJayBee]

Yes, the books say 3 - 4 weeks but I think it is important for beginners to understand that it is frequently considerably longer than that, especially in parts of the country beyond the balmy south east. In my experience 6 - 7 weeks is not unusual and the queens have been excellent. Patience and weather watching is the game.

It depends where this balmy south is! 6-7 weeks isn't unusual here either.

"The books" (some books) do tend to deal in absolutes, which makes it difficult. Better books will say that queens can mate from about day 25 but will be too old at day 41ish. Eggs appear about a week after mating. Mating tends to be weather dependent, so it's unlikely a queen will fly when it's raining, foggy, thundery, blowing a gale etc.. Unlikely, but not impossible!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

One Thursday, one yesterday. Obviously is not queenless anymore but it's there something wrong with them or me?

explain exactly what happened. Did they come out, then go back in again or just go and never return? I can't recall now, but how many QC's did you leave in the hive?