frenchbees
New Bee
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2010
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Normandy, France
- Hive Type
- Dadant
- Number of Hives
- 3
I collected my first hive at the beginning of June. On 2 July they swarmed and I was unable to capture them.
5 July I removed all but 2 closed Queen cells.
17 July the Queen cells I had left were gone, the cells in the central frames were empty and the closed cells on the outer frames looked old, there were small (emergency?) queen cells high on the frames.
19 and 24 July there were a lot of drones flying, I hoped this was a mating flight.
29 July I couldn't see any eggs or larvae but some cells with pollen and some with honey. Small Queen cells still there.
30 July drones flying again.
I think the hive must be Queenless and possibly the drones were taking cleansing flights?
How do you distinguish a mating flight from a cleansing flight?
Should I attempt to re Queen or allow more time and look for eggs again?
The bees are still very placid
5 July I removed all but 2 closed Queen cells.
17 July the Queen cells I had left were gone, the cells in the central frames were empty and the closed cells on the outer frames looked old, there were small (emergency?) queen cells high on the frames.
19 and 24 July there were a lot of drones flying, I hoped this was a mating flight.
29 July I couldn't see any eggs or larvae but some cells with pollen and some with honey. Small Queen cells still there.
30 July drones flying again.
I think the hive must be Queenless and possibly the drones were taking cleansing flights?
How do you distinguish a mating flight from a cleansing flight?
Should I attempt to re Queen or allow more time and look for eggs again?
The bees are still very placid