Requeening

[freda]

Yes colony is all fed and treated with apiguard, mouseguard on ,ready for winter, all advice taken thank you...I will leave til spring.

 

[Xander]

I was in a similar situation to you ya the end of September. I foolishly destroyed a supersedure cell thinking it was a swarm cell.
Against all advice on here I requeened with an online bought carniolan on 5th October.
I think I was lucky with the late weather as she's been accepted and is laying well.
Hive is wrapped up for the winter now and fingers crossed until spring as I only have one hive.
As the weather is turning much colder now I wouldn't chance it again personally, especially if I had more hives. I'd think about combining it with a q+ if your test frame reveals its q-.
Good luck.

 

[polymath]

It’s a test frame. You don’t need drones.

Dissagree, had two really bad tempered colonies no eggs, brood, larvae, put test sections of eggs in one they left alone. Then spoke to an old beekeeper who said this time of year with no drones around even if queenless they often just leave eggs. Luckily i had queens in Mating Nucs to over winter so i have just merged two of them into the colonies. Could their be a a queen i each, possibly but even if there is they need brood at this time of year so something is not right. My view, find a queen from somewhere, make up a quick Nuc with a few frames merge here into that first then merge the Nuc into the bigger colony, safe that way.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Dissagree

That’s why I asked earlier whether a test frame at this time of year would work? However my statement was to blunt spike to generally explain what a test frame was

 

[Erichalfbee]

My view, find a queen from somewhere, make up a quick Nuc with a few frames merge here into that first then merge the Nuc into the bigger colony, safe that way.

Not really. What if there is a queen in there and she is the one that survives? @Swarm answer is the right one

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'll say it once again, it's November, the time has long passed for fiddling or inspecting (I would have said the same in October - and part of September), just leave all well alone - if you end up with a winter deadout, so be it.

 

[Xander]

Just re-read your initial question. You have 3 colonies all with plenty stores and plenty of winter bees.
The forecast is poor this coming month into winter proper so opening up hives and messing around might knock back the colony in their settling down for winter.
As I was told recently, don't open the hive unless you have a purpose and job to do as messing around trying things out will just upset the colony and you risk squishing your queen between two frames.
As swarm said, wrap em up and see what transpires in the spring. At the very least you should have 2 colonies still and maybe a 3rd who's queen has been playing hide and seek. If not you'll have plenty of drawn comb to do an early split.

 

[hemo]

I agree with JBM once sept is here it is time to stop fiddling, for my part this is a lot earlier in late July or mid August bar checking for stores or applying treatment which is externally done.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Glad I avoid this kind of stress by not opening the hives after September.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Glad I avoid this kind of stress by not opening the hives after September.

you leave it that late!

 

[Nige.Coll]

you leave it that late!

I do have some apiaries on Balsam

 

[SWEET]

Glad I avoid this kind of stress by not opening the hives after September.

Ha, October is the new September.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ha, October is the new September.

Our Rayburn has always gone on at the beginning of October but remains unlit. Yesterday the morning temperature was 13C

 

[SWEET]

September was like mid summer here so all the usual tasks have been shifted (by around 6 weeks). I feed fondant rather than syrup but started late as stocks filling with Ivy.

Checking the feed gives a quick insight into the status of each unit and I'll take action* rather than have more work in Spring (works for me). Last full inspections were July/August.

Most of my units are still dragging in masses of pollen.

*to a point.

 

[JamezF]

Our Rayburn has always gone on at the beginning of October but remains unlit. Yesterday the morning temperature was 13C

Temperatures are starting to drop here, having been around 15°C at the weekend. It's 11.5°C at the moment, but still generally comfortable working outdoors in shorts and short sleeves.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

finally bit the bullet and turned the heating on last night now comes the annual closing, opening, just cracking open and tweaking of the radiator valves to 'balance' a fifty odd year old central heating system
I'll have it perfect by April

 

[Gilberdyke John]

finally bit the bullet and turned the heating on last night now comes the annual closing, opening, just cracking open and tweaking of the radiator valves to 'balance' a fifty odd year old central heating system
I'll have it perfect by April

No lockshield valves for balancing on your old system Emyr? Saves a lot of buggering about and you can use the wheel head valve at the opposite end of the radiator to turn radiators off in unused rooms if you want to.

 

[Moobee]

I had 4 out of 9 hives in one apiary being hammered by wasps. I went in today and found all 4 had no eggs or sign if any brood and were getting weaker. I combined them to make 2 larger colonies and will add a q+ nuc to them when we have some decent temps again.

I bloody hate wasps after this season

 

[SWEET]

Temperatures are starting to drop here, having been around 15°C at the weekend. It's 11.5°C at the moment, but still generally comfortable working outdoors in shorts and short sleeves.

James

20+ here last weekend, dropping now though.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

No lockshield valves for balancing on your old system Emyr? Saves a lot of buggering about and you can use the wheel head valve at the opposite end of the radiator to turn radiators off in unused rooms if you want to.

believe you me - it's not that simple, last year I had to turn the dining room radiator off/almost off to get a good flow in the study and hallway (no big deal as we seldom need heat in there) although a week or so later it was fine to use it. This year turning it off had the opposite effect, it's now fully open and both the study and hallway rads are fine. Doesn't help I suppose that all the downstairs feeds are dropped down from the main ring fitted upstairs.
My uncle, who installed it originally and who fitted the gas boiler to replace the oil one located in the washroom outside when I bought the hose took me through the whole palaver. My aunty Mabel (who had the original system fitted) was a right awkward old baggot. Central heating powered by the oil boiler in an outhouse, hot water from a rayburn rhapsody back boiler coal fire in what is now the dining room. She refused to have anything much moved to install the system so in my study the pipes coming from the upstairs feed are curved in the outline of the dresser she had in that room. Upstairs, she stopped them lifting any floorboards, so all the pipework runs along the skirtings - which can be lived with, but when I moved in, I had to step over the pipes which fed the main bedroom's and the study below's rad. to get to the balcony door!