Queenless?

[Poly Hive]

Sorry Rab you lost me here.

If I missed something about a queen present then sorry I missed it. No need for personal comments please? Nor have I claimed to be a "Professional" I leave that status to the big boys who run 200+

PH

 

[oliver90owner]

Nor have I claimed to be a "Professional"

Ahh, Craibstone was just a tin-pot set up, then? You seem to keep mentioning it whenever you get the opportunity and that you ran it (single handed?). Exspurt fits the bill better?

 

[Poly Hive]

Ah: getting personal Rab? Naughty.

Play the ball man, you have been here long enough to know better.

Yes I did run Craibstone for five years and am proud of it. And produced tonnes of honey to boot. And went on to build a very good honey house in my back garden and carried on producing tonnes of honey from there. There are pics of my set up on the site if you care to look rather than throwing thinly veiled slurs.

The problem is?

PH

 

[susbees]

Fair enough but what if there are laying workers in there?

Is it fair to assume that LW would begin to lay again at about the same time as a mated queen?

 

[Poly Hive]

As pointed out I have no great experience of LW's but I believe that they develop after an exhausted queen, in the sense she has run out of sperm and or pheromones, then seize the opportunity to try to reproduce. Though I read those drones are sterile.

So they develop later in the season. Though not much later.

PH

 

[Beeline]

OP? Is the drone brood regular or miss-shapen?

If tomorrow is mild I'll carry out a further inspection and take some pics to provide a better picture. I understand we're going a bit blind here.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[Poly Hive]

Thanks Bl

PH

 

[Beeline]

Carried out a further inspection today and took some pics of the current state.

Apologies for quality of pics as I was holding frame in one hand and camera in other.

Pic 1 shows a few drone brood. You can even see a larva to the right of one capped drone cell. All told there is maybe tops 15 capped drone cells laid in a sporadic pattern, as seen in Pic 2.

My other hive is going hell for leather today bringing in pollen so HM in that hive is obviously laying.

PH, RAB others, any further comments? I'm abroad tomorrow until Friday so if I have to act it must be today.

Thanks.

 

[Beeline]

Battling to upload pics. Says files attached but...ah, yes.

 

[RoofTops]

PH, RAB others, any further comments? I'm abroad tomorrow until Friday so if I have to act it must be today.

I would just leave them be. It is hard to tell from the pictures but I think I can see at least a couple of adult drones in the 3rd picture so the signs are not good but I would still leave them to what fate has in store.

My advice was based on the assumption you are beginner and therefore the advice I gave was based on what I thought was the safest course of action, given for example that it is not inconceivable there are 2 queens in there if there was a late supercesstion last year. It was akin to my advice elswhere to beginners to treat their bees with OA every winter. Until they think they have the skills to experiment with alternative regimes it is the safest approach and if everyone (or almost everyone) did it we perhaps wouldn't be seeing an average of 20%+ winter losses each year.

I have marked 4 possible drones in the image below. The one on the right looks fairly certain - note the wings are almost as long as the body. There are probably others I haven't marked.

 

[Beeline]

RT

I'm not sure if you were making a general statement about some beeks not applying OA over winter or it was directed at me? Both my hives were treated with OA in the first week of January this year.

In response to your markings - there are quite a few drones present in the hive. Both my hives currently have drones so why does this spell trouble in this hive?

Just curious that's all. Thanks.

 

[RoofTops]

Sorry, reply certainly wasn't directed at you - more a general musing about pitching advice at the right level, i.e. suggesting something that might be difficult for a beginner to do. Please ignore my ramblings!

In an ideal world there should not be drones in your hive over winter - they are just non-productive mouths to feed. They are seen from time to time but in my experience it is generally a cause for concern, i.e. queen not laying properly. However, I have seen people say here that they often see drones and do not have problems but the last time I saw it was 2 years ago. I took the roof off to trickle OA and several drones came up to say hello. The colony was dead come spring.