Should I bother?

[Holly Bees]

In one colony I used to have a Vigin Queen as a result of supercedure. She hatched on the 27th or 28th of May There is NO brood of any discription. I have inspected three times since the 27th and have sighted no Queen last night I noted the Pollen sealed with a a good film of nectar! Should I bother with a test frame of eggs before re Queening to make sure theres no Queen or just dangle a cage in now? Bearing in mind the time gap if I place a place a test frame in and they dont raise cells she might turn into a DLQ anyway. Its a pity the bees and theres still lots of them are very placid but are missing mummy now I THINK ! Anyone any thoughts?

 

[flemage]

I would stick in a test frame.

last night i was certain that i was going to need to unite a hive with a spare nuc i had made when i split the hive. on last inspection queen in Nuc going great guns and nothing in main hive. i had taken a QC for the NUc from this hive and they looked the same age. i thought it was totaly out of time.

I even went out and brought some haze air spray to unite i was so sure the main hive was queenless but thought i would just have a look and ....low eggs and queen in place in main hive..........

Thats not to say she wont be a drone layer but i have the time to see what happens.

 

[oliver90owner]

she might turn into a DLQ anyway

Are you referring to your new queen in the cage here? It is not entirely clear.

If so, it is unusual, or should I say less common, that a new queen in a cage is a virgin.

Two days for a test frame, even for newbie to recognise cells being drawn, is fairly irrelevant when one considers she (the new queen) might be a long time dead if there is another virgin in there already.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It's only been a bit over four weeks - be patient for a few weeks yet (no harm in a test frame though) I had a queen last year took over 6 weeks to mate - going great guns now though.
In retrospect (great thing that innit) maybe you could have held off on the weekly inspections after emergence to give her peace to mate.

 

[For want of a better word]

Flemage... it seems the weather hereabouts is causing the bees to time things differently, but I agree a nuc with a laying queen raised from your own line of bees the best insurance going !

 

[scuttlefish]

Bearing in mind the time gap if I place a place a test frame in and they dont raise cells she might turn into a DLQ anyway.

If there is a queen in there and she's a drone layer you could always re-queen then.

 

[susbees]

I even went out and brought some haze air spray to unite i was so sure the main hive was queenless but thought i would just have a look and ....low eggs and queen in place in main hive..........

Recycled newspaper's better for the environment and works in 24 hours...

 

[Holly Bees]

I was under the impression that after 40 days or so if not mated, a virgin might not be physically suitable for mating maybe test frame is another tool to shed clarity on situation, when it warms up a bit keep you posted. Thank you for your responses and advice.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes but the books aren't always right - the authors didn't always ask the bees - and the bees are notorious for not reading the right books!! as icanhopit said - the strange weather is making the bees do things differently

 

[Holly Bees]

OK test frame it is ...I will try to improve my computer skills as well by taking some photos!

 

[flemage]

icanhopit

i was very close to PMing you to see if you had any AMM queens as i do at some point want to give them ago. perhaps at some point if you do have a spare could you PM me and perhaps i could make up a nuc and play?

Susbee

i was reading threads yesterday and they were saying 7 days for newspaper and that the Haze method was good and fairly instant? I dont really know as i have never done it before. As for environment i would imagine that newspapers arent great, bleach for paper, transport etc however i would imagine that Haze is would have a higher impacted as its a metal container. Dont know realy thought i would give it ago.

 

[Holly Bees]

OK job done test frame in of eggs and eggs alone!

 

[flemage]

good luck

my moneys on no queen cells.......

Let us know how it goes

 

[For want of a better word]

Recycled newspaper's better for the environment and works in 24 hours...

Financial Times = unbleached paper?... not sure it still is !

 

[The Cumbrian]

Financial Times = unbleached paper?... not sure it still is !

Wouldn't the dye be as big a worry as the bleaching?

 

[For want of a better word]

Wouldn't the dye be as big a worry as the bleaching?

I even thought of using handmade paper... until I saw the price!

Anyone out there in the Great open world of beekeepering know if the FT is still printed on unbleached paper?

 

[Holly Bees]

checked the test frame quickly earlier in poor weather but not raining. 7 cups and two slighly more elongated/drawn cells look very emergency like. The bees were very unhappy of my presence !!!