Requeening. First stage done

[Erichalfbee]

I hope so lol, just introduced one

A Buckfast?
What does JBM say?

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

there are queen grafting classes or indeed I have a hive of buckfasts that are lovely and I could pinch some eggs from - but the fastest/ most reliable way to change my aggresive hive is to buy a mated queen from the experts. Of course many Beeks raise their own queens - I may well do that later on this year to make increase.

Do not expect miracles; lots of talk on here of aggression from colonies raised as Buckfast offspring via open mating; this is how I got the one I am just about to dispatch; give it a search or Google F1 (or F2) Buckfast etc.

 

[Tremyfro]

I'm sure if I stood in your bee yard I could name every hive! ( they all have numbers stuck on them ). You have got lots now!
Surplus quuen sounds good. Gone off queen cell raising. Disaster. I opened the one you gave me and there was a shrivelled larva in there. Not my best beek success. Dropping it definitely didn't help!

Can't wait for my requeening to be done and raise a brood of gingers.

Ha ha ha.....not surprised she didn't survive! First she was Aga Queen...then.....Patio Queen! It would have been a miracle if she had actually become 2nd Hive Queen in your garden. She did have some interesting experiences before pegging out!
My buzzy colonies have turned over a new leaf......all happy yesterday during inspection...the nice weather must suit them. Both are strong colonies...I swiped 4 more frames of OSR honey....I am eager to make sure it is all removed...so even though the weather has been pants....the girls have managed to fill some comb. I now have spare drawn super comb...ready for the blackberries and HB.
This year is turning out to be such a great year......I am getting close to fulfilling my aims for increase.

 

[REDWOOD]

A Buckfast?
What does JBM say?

$%&£%....... !

 

[Obee1]

A Buckfast?
What does JBM say?

Just a stab in the dark here..... Does jb prefer welsh mongrel queens? Aka slappers from newport type?

My meangreenqueen is a local welsh hussy. My next purchased queen is going to be a carniolan.

 

[Obee1]

Ha ha ha.....not surprised she didn't survive! First she was Aga Queen...then.....Patio Queen! It would have been a miracle if she had actually become 2nd Hive Queen in your garden. She did have some interesting experiences before pegging out!
My buzzy colonies have turned over a new leaf......all happy yesterday during inspection...the nice weather must suit them. Both are strong colonies...I swiped 4 more frames of OSR honey....I am eager to make sure it is all removed...so even though the weather has been pants....the girls have managed to fill some comb. I now have spare drawn super comb...ready for the blackberries and HB.
This year is turning out to be such a great year......I am getting close to fulfilling my aims for increase.

More bloody honey... Well jel. You live in the middle of a wind tunnel for goodness sake. How do you get so much honey? That's it! All talk of honey from you is banned.... Till I have some from my hives. Might be quite a wait.

 

[Obee1]

Next instalment.

Have placed order for some correx nucs and some poly brood boxes. Hopefully will have lots of spare kit arrive in time for the big meangreenqueen hunt.
Today I plan to remove tab from my newbluebucky in the nuc. I originally planned to individually name my queens. Meangreenqueen started life as 'Priscilla queen of the garden' but they all end up having descriptive names as OH never knows which queen or hive I'm talking about. Now she is meangreenqueen in the hive in the corner to be replaced by newbluebucky in the nuc.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Next instalment.



Have placed order for some correx nucs and some poly brood boxes. Hopefully will have lots of spare kit arrive in time for the big meangreenqueen hunt..

So she will become orangeyellowsmear or Crystal?

 

[Tremyfro]

More bloody honey... Well jel. You live in the middle of a wind tunnel for goodness sake. How do you get so much honey? That's it! All talk of honey from you is banned.... Till I have some from my hives. Might be quite a wait.

Tee Hee......OK Honey....no more talk of sweet stuff from hives!
Perhaps the wind keeps blowing my girls to the Nectar ....they must Comb the hedgerows.....don't know how they struggle back though!....they probably have to fly all around the Vale to pick up the Gales to blow them home.....
Why do you think yours are not bringing in stores though?....they should have loads where you are. Town gardens are renowned for a good nectar supply and it is so much warmer where you are too. The colonies are big and you have supers on....I don't understand....perhaps the forum have an answer?

 

[For want of a better word]

Expect your B hybrids are so busy producing prolific amounts of brood they are too busy to make any surplus... and then any surplus they may produce will be consumed rapidly during the June gap that has yet to arrive here in the Sunny South West.

Not so easy peezy this beekeeping as some would have you believe!

Yeghes da

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Expect your B hybrids are so busy producing prolific amounts of brood they are too busy to make any surplus... and then any surplus they may produce will be consumed rapidly during the June gap that has yet to arrive here in the Sunny South West.

Not so easy peezy this beekeeping as some would have you believe!

Yeghes da

I sometimes wonder whether forcing a brood break 3 weeks or so before main flow (i.e. now) would be an idea. Any views?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

So when they need younger foraging bees the most - there's none emerging.
Sounds a bit daft to me - why don't you go the whole hog and just kill the queen?

 

[Tremyfro]

So many of the plants are struggling in this cold windy weather. They will all be over before our girls can gather their winter stores...let alone surplus for beekeepers. I think you are right....the big colony is gobbling up the nectar as it comes in.....making even more brood to gobble up the stores. Is this because of the type of bee strain or simply because the colony is big? I suppose the best case scenario is a big foraging force at the time of the best nectar source. Which can only be achieved if you learnt what forage is available in your own area and how it is affected by the weather and manipulate the colony to match. Tricky if you get it wrong of course.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the big colony is gobbling up the nectar as it comes in.....making even more brood to gobble up the stores. Is this because of the type of bee strain or simply because the colony is big?

Thus maybe an argument for more locally adapted bees - I noticed this week that most colonies have slowed down their brooding a little with the weather we've had lately.

 

[Tremyfro]

Thus maybe an argument for more locally adapted bees - I noticed this week that most colonies have slowed down their brooding a little with the weather we've had lately.

I was referring to Obee1's big colonies.....mine are not so big,I think, from her description. I think hers are local bees.
I have some local bees...but they don't make huge brood nests and I have one Carniolan colony...which was big before I made 5 nucs from the majority of it.
It is strange because...you would think the bigger the colony...the more honey made...especially in town where there is lots of forage and it is a warmer climate.

 

[Obee1]

Tremy you beat me to it. Was about to ask the forum just why I have no honey. I just inspected meangreenqueen this afternoon. She has 15 frames of brood over the 2 boxes - it was 17 three days ago but I pinched two for the nuc. So there is masses of brood. 4 frames of pollen and a couple of foundation frames not yet drawn ( these were put there Friday to replace the brood I took out). Very little honey even in the colony. The super is just starting to be drawn on a few frames. Weather is sunny. No wind. Tons of flowers and trees on their doorstep. Water a few yards away. They are constantly out foraging. Where's the bloody honey?!!!

Are they short of space? The boxes are both full of bees across most of the seams. Too many mouths to feed? Shall I bung another brood box under the double brood a la finny method?

Oh and the little minx must be reading the forum. Why else would she brazenly march across a frame in front of me when she knows it is too soon for me to catch her. How much do you bet she is nowhere to be found when I need to squish her. And yes they were badly behaved pinging and following. Not dreadful though. She still needs to be requeened. BTW she is a local queen bred about 3 miles from here.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Where's the bloody honey?!!!

Presumably in the brood frames: I might have a theory why. How big was the colony in late August?

On the "queen-killing" or brood break, there are people who do this apparently; the idea being that there are no nursing duties so nurse bees can handle nectar or forage, increasing the flow.

 

[Obee1]

Presumably in the brood frames: I might have a theory why. How big was the colony in late August?

On the "queen-killing" or brood break, there are people who do this apparently; the idea being that there are no nursing duties so nurse bees can handle nectar or forage, increasing the flow.

The colony started life when I bought it mid to late July as a 5 frame nuc put straight into a full size national brood box. It was fed a few litres. Not much. Then it grew to double brood but never had enough honey to take any off last year. Overwintered on double brood dummied down with some insulation at inside ends. Grew very fast in spring. So fast it was 14 brood frames by mid April and was split in half. This half kept queen but lost foragers (don't ask!) I admit have nicked a couple of brood box frames this year that were mainly honey but only 3 jars worth. The brood box looks to have barely any stores in it now. Either I'm beeking all wrong or she is a prolific layer and compulsive overeater!

 

[Finman]

.
I have nursed my hives 20 years do that I killed the Queen and I give a new one after 2 weeks. Them I gove up from this system and yields are not at least worse. In some cases the hive lost its motivation to work.

But big hives and good yields. That is what I am doing. 15 frames of brood is normal in my hives.

Good yield comes from good pastures. If there are too much bees on same flower area, pastures will be over grazed.

And where are you bloody honey yield now?
It depends on plants, but at least in our nature most plants need 22-24C temps about one week that abundant nectar secretion exists, so called flow.

Best yields have come, when day temps are 28-30C, and that seems to be so that there are more foraging hours during day. Bees fly up to sunset. In such weather aphids start to give honey dew and then bees have lots to forage.

But if soil is poor and dry, bees get nothing from area. Same kind of hive may get 40 kg or 140 kg from different pastures. That I have tried to learn during last 25 years, when I noticed the principle.

Worst pastures are such that bees are forced to fly over corn fields or over dry forest 1-2 km before they meet first flowers.

But this summer Britain has been so cold that at least our nature does not give honey, if day temps are only 17C.

.

 

[Obee1]

.
I have nursed my hives 20 years do that I killed the Queen and I give a new one after 2 weeks. Them I gove up from this system and yields are not at least worse. In some cases the hive lost its motivation to work.

But big hives and good yields. That is what I am doing. 15 frames of brood is normal in my hives.

Good yield comes from good pastures. If there are too much bees on same flower area, pastures will be over grazed.

And where are you bloody honey yield now?
It depends on plants, but at least in our nature most plants need 22-24C temps about one week that abundant nectar secretion exists, so called flow.

Best yields have come, when day temps are 28-30C, and that seems to be so that there are more foraging hours during day. Bees fly up to sunset. In such weather aphids start to give honey dew and then bees have lots to forage.

But if soil is poor and dry, bees get nothing from area. Same kind of hive may get 40 kg or 140 kg from different pastures. That I have tried to learn during last 25 years, when I noticed the principle.

Worst pastures are such that bees are forced to fly over corn fields or over dry forest 1-2 km before they meet first flowers.

But this summer Britain has been so cold that at least our nature does not give honey, if day temps are only 17C.

.

So finny cold weather is my problem? Certainly not often got up to 20c. They should have very good forage as many plants and trees are close. No open fields. By next week when I change to the new queen it would have been time for a third brood box anyway so moving the introductory nuc into a brood box and joining via newspaper will achieve that.