- Joined
- May 26, 2021
- Messages
- 222
- Reaction score
- 61
- Location
- Salisbury
- Hive Type
- WBC
- Number of Hives
- 5
Today I was going through the bottom and top BBs on a demaree'd colony which I believe swarmed a few days ago. I was double-checking that I had only one sealed QC in the bottom BB.
In the top BB there were a few QCs (supercedure cells?) and I began to take them out. As I levered one of them off with my hive tool the queen inside emerged. She was quite definitely a queen; small and pointy. She seemed fully-developed and scuttled off happily. Clearly I must have missed that QC on previous inspections.
I was a bit taken aback and unprepared to catch her. So I decided that the most sensible course of action would be to let her run free and close up again. So now I appear to have a top box that is Q+ (unmated) and a bottom box that has a single QC. So my question really is: can I/should I just leave them to it and add a couple of QEs above and below the top BB. I'd then have, in effect, two Q+ colonies in one hive separated by a demaree board and QEs. Or should I find a way to get the queen into the bottom BB where she belongs, perhaps by simply swapping the BBs over and then taking out the remaining QC?
In the top BB there were a few QCs (supercedure cells?) and I began to take them out. As I levered one of them off with my hive tool the queen inside emerged. She was quite definitely a queen; small and pointy. She seemed fully-developed and scuttled off happily. Clearly I must have missed that QC on previous inspections.
I was a bit taken aback and unprepared to catch her. So I decided that the most sensible course of action would be to let her run free and close up again. So now I appear to have a top box that is Q+ (unmated) and a bottom box that has a single QC. So my question really is: can I/should I just leave them to it and add a couple of QEs above and below the top BB. I'd then have, in effect, two Q+ colonies in one hive separated by a demaree board and QEs. Or should I find a way to get the queen into the bottom BB where she belongs, perhaps by simply swapping the BBs over and then taking out the remaining QC?