- Joined
- Mar 11, 2021
- Messages
- 2,831
- Reaction score
- 2,104
- Location
- Glossop, North Derbyshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 4 to 12!
A week ago I found QCs and saw the
Q in one of my hives. I was going to do a standard A/S but inadvertently squashed the last (selected) QC.
So I did something I'd been toying with anyway: put a new box with 2 frames of eggs & young brood on the floor, filled the rest with drawn comb and placed a solid board with hingeable "gates" on 2 sides, with the front upper entrance open to the top box. Like a snelgrove board but solid. The rest of the hive went on top.
Plan was to remove the flying bees and hope that stops swarming (though I did take down all the QCs too!.
Now a week on the flying bees in the bottom have made EQCs as expected - I've removed the EQCs and replaced the frames with fresh ones with eggs & young larvae and put the old ones back "upstairs".
However the top box had drawn a few new swarm cells too, which wasn't supposed to happen but bees don't read the same books. I've removed them. I didn't see the Q but there were plenty of eggs.
Plan this evening is to change the gates so tomorrow the flyers from the top box exit from a different side and return back to the bottom box.
I only made gates on 2 sides, I should have done 3, though I have another I could modify & replace with.
Do you think this is going to work? It would be nice if it did because although I did see the Q, you don't have to.
Q in one of my hives. I was going to do a standard A/S but inadvertently squashed the last (selected) QC.
So I did something I'd been toying with anyway: put a new box with 2 frames of eggs & young brood on the floor, filled the rest with drawn comb and placed a solid board with hingeable "gates" on 2 sides, with the front upper entrance open to the top box. Like a snelgrove board but solid. The rest of the hive went on top.
Plan was to remove the flying bees and hope that stops swarming (though I did take down all the QCs too!.
Now a week on the flying bees in the bottom have made EQCs as expected - I've removed the EQCs and replaced the frames with fresh ones with eggs & young larvae and put the old ones back "upstairs".
However the top box had drawn a few new swarm cells too, which wasn't supposed to happen but bees don't read the same books. I've removed them. I didn't see the Q but there were plenty of eggs.
Plan this evening is to change the gates so tomorrow the flyers from the top box exit from a different side and return back to the bottom box.
I only made gates on 2 sides, I should have done 3, though I have another I could modify & replace with.
Do you think this is going to work? It would be nice if it did because although I did see the Q, you don't have to.
