The battle of the Alamo

[kevrhcfag]

Make yourself or buy a push in cage much easier.

It was a mistake to put queen in nuc where old bees are.

Other mistake is keeping old queen, her drones will do you no favours in the long run. Best get rid.

 

[Erichalfbee]

It's being brave enough to use that push in cage which means handling the queen. I am in awe of Mike Palmer who does it outside in the apiary.

 

[drex]

Having watched MP's video of picking up queens by their handles ( wings) I gave it a try on queens I was intending to cull. It is surprisingly easy, and I am now confident to,pick up any queen. His other video of marking queens, where he lets her grab his middle finger, rather than ball of the thumb, was also very helpful, as I always found the ball of the thumb bit rather awkward.
Give it a go Erica, you will be surprised how easy it is. Like me you could start of with queens that are not valuable or practice with drones. Makes life so much easier.

 

[taurus]

I don't want to peek into the nuc with the new queen (well I do - but I believe it won't do any good)....but on Thursday it was a case of them attacking on sight, even from 30 foot away they'd make a run at me the moment I stepped out of the back door.

Saturday and Sunday I can walk around the hives in T-shirt and shorts and they are back to ignoring me.

I live in hope!

 

[Erichalfbee]

having watched mp's video of picking up queens by their handles ( wings) i gave it a try on queens i was intending to cull. It is surprisingly easy, and i am now confident to,pick up any queen. His other video of marking queens, where he lets her grab his middle finger, rather than ball of the thumb, was also very helpful, as i always found the ball of the thumb bit rather awkward.
Give it a go erica, you will be surprised how easy it is. Like me you could start of with queens that are not valuable or practice with drones. Makes life so much easier.

like

 

[taurus]

To conclude this saga....

the blighters bumped off the new queen - as many predicted would happen.

Which left them queenless and eggless, so I pinched a frame of eggs out of my best colony and place that in with them.

I used the queen rearing calendar from Ohio university to track progress according to which eggs should be present by 24th July. I checked on 22nd July and there were eggs present. I also spotted the new queen - easy to find because she was literally surrounded by bees forming a perfect circle around her.

If she is anything like her mother she will be a cracker.

 

[user 6228]

Alamo? for goodness sake this is the UK so its Alamein or Arnhem depending whether it went well or bad. or earlier still Bosworth or Tewkesbury

the metaphor police

 

[JWF]

You got there in the end! Just enough time to build up for the winter

How are they behaving now they've got a new queen?

 

[Quis Custodiet]

Alamo? for goodness sake this is the UK so its Alamein or Arnhem depending whether it went well or bad. or earlier still Bosworth or Tewkesbury

the metaphor police

Edge hill, Marston Moor, Naseby and dare one mention...out of deference for our Scottish friends; Dunbar.

 

[madasafish]

Edge hill, Marston Moor, Naseby and dare one mention...out of deference for our Scottish friends; Dunbar.

I prefer Bannockburn myself...

 

[Poly Hive]

A heads up for the info from abroad.

Our climate is variable to say the least and when I see people quoting from abroad I get worried as it often leads to false expectations.

It is not unusual for a queen in my northern experience to take up to 35 days before eggs are seen.

PH

 

[Angularity]

Alamo? for goodness sake this is the UK so its Alamein or Arnhem depending whether it went well or bad. or earlier still Bosworth or Tewkesbury

the metaphor police

White Syke Close at Marston Moor. Or Basing House. The problem is, there are no decent movies about the Civil Wars, and John Wayne is now unavoidabley detained.

 

[enrico]

Thanks for the update of what happened, always good to see an end to a story.
E

 

[rdmw]

Personally I think it is a good idea to rear a queen from one of your other hives. One that is well behaved and productive. That way you are getting a local bee who is well adjusted to your local conditions. I have lovely gentle bees, well suited to the north west highlands, but I am sure that if I sent one to Cornwall for example she would not do well.
I was taught that by making splits early in the year you can reduce swarming and rear fresh queens, then later in the year remove last years queens and unite the colonies leaving lots of bees to harvest the late season heather and ivy. I don't always get this right, but it seems more logical than importing somewhere else's bees. My queens mate with other local Beekeepers drones so the genetic pool is varied but suitable for our locality.
I have had success with just removing the old queen ( and putting her into a nuc to help produce bees to draw comb, also providing insurance in case my new queen fails for some reason) then introducing the new queen in a butler cage. Once the new queen is happy and laying then the old queen in the nuc can be "retired" and the nuc reunited. If this fails then
adding a frame of eggs to the queenless colony and waiting 6 weeks usually produces a new laying queen.
Don't be forgetting our local last stand - Culloden Moor.


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