Swarming

[Hivemaker.]

Thank you Bcrazy,never noticed them jump or scream when clipping,i find it more painful for me if i don't clip them.

 

[oliver90owner]

Problem is: first find your queen! Marking and clipping is another problem for the 'one-colony' brigade in their early seasons. Finding her now (or shortly, when drones are around, would be better) for marking and clipping is a good idea - before there are 50,000 in the colony.

Regards, RAB

 

[Polyanwood]

Marking is quite easy with a crown of thorns.

I think clipping is difficult though....even after practising on drones I am nervous and have not managed to do all my colonies. I am keen to get them all clipped as who wants to lose half their workers?

 

[victor meldrew]

I've just lost sheds full of brood .
Although the weather here has been diabolical save for a very few days my queens have gone ballistic .
Down side is ,having placed an empty super under each colony , (to provide a turbulence break according to the pundits).
Whats happened ? the inevitable of course ! , the colonies have expanded downwards instead of sideways. on all the central frames (14x12s, now 14x16s).
The only way out I could see was to cut off the extensions and sacrifice the brood .
Moral of the story, 1 don't repeat the vain exercise with the under supers .
2 don't follow suggestions blindly as they aren't always fully researched.
Up side is I have had plenty of brood to sift through for varroa mites (haven't spotted one )
Also a small colony headed by a late ,late, quenn has come through this excepional winter /spring . Still small but time is now on her side .

John Wilkinson.
Ps another plus perhaps, is ,it's probably held them back enough to stay thoughts of early swarming !

 

[Hombre]

I guess that with hindsight you might have put the super under the OMFs John?

An alternative is to incorporate an apron around the upper part of the hive stands to provide the baffle against the wind and free up a super. More storage space to be found in the shed.

 

[victor meldrew]

I guess I'll dispense with the supers .
My omfs are incorporated into the hive stands , the bottom drawer is 2" deep which was the standard at the time . all too heavy to be lifting onto a super . but an Idea for peeps with a user friendly type of omf !.
For a couple of years now ,my branch has been experimenting with leaving the trays in for winter (just a few colonies so a comparison can be had) and so far ,this seems an advantage as the colonies get away sooner !
I left my drawers in and yes the colonies have thrived (too quickly for me to get rid of super in time ).
I'm coming round to Finmans Ideas. Pre varroa I had solid floors and left the bees to their own devices regarding ventilation
Certainly no where for the wax moth to lurk !.
I've only put supers under for 2 or 3 years and only this year have I been caught out! I could blame the weather as this happened before my first proper inspection !

John Wilkinson

 

[Hivemaker.]

I'm coming round to Finmans Ideas. Pre varroa I had solid floors and left the bees to their own devices regarding ventilation

I also much prefer the solid floors,my bee's seem to do just fine with them,only use a few mesh floors for monitoring that the mite treatments are effective,and the slides remain in all the time.

 

[Poly Hive]

Would you describe your climate Hivemaker as akin to the rest of the uK?

PH

 

[Hivemaker.]

Depends if down in the valley down near sea level, or out over the hills at 1,700 ft..totally different, but solid floors are good for both.

 

[Poly Hive]

That blew that line of thinking out the water though you are in the balmy south.

PH

 

[Somerford]

For all those newbees who worry about not finding the queen - the best thing their mentor/beekeeping pal can do for them is locate it and mark it for them !

At least it takes the worry out of looking and makes the colony management much easier !

regards

S

 

[rae]

A marked queen should be pretty easy to find. One of ours has a luminous green dot that you can spot a mile away, the other appears to have been done with white paint and is a bit harder to see but still clear enough. We'd stand much less chance if they weren't marked.