the best laid plans.....

[taff..]

always has the 'Murphy' element just waiting to go wrong


last saturday I did an artificail swarm, made absolutely sure, 100% that there was not a QC on the frame that was transfered, and I planned on checking that frame 4 days later for QC's.

because I work away from home I'm away monday to friday, but usually make it home on a wednesday night so this plan fits in well....

well that is untill murphy raises his head, it was chucking it down with rain on wed afternoon, and I didn't get home untill later than usual, booger, no chance to get to the bees. so as soon as I got home this afternoon I went straight over to inspect and sure enough, there's 4 capped cells and not many bees, arse. -->

 

[Gardenbees]

(altogether now...) Swaaaarmy weather!

Ditto, almost. I went all over my favourite colony two days ago, suspicious they might feel like swarming. No corner was left unturned (they're good-natured, fortunately). No sign of a queen cell. Had a bad feeling this morning - so warm and humid. Went in at lunchtime and they were innocently fetching nectar and pollen, no signs of excitement. Came home this evening and my neighbour popped round to inform me that the little sugars had decamped to the eaves of her shed.

It was getting a bit late, but still light and warm. I took the box I had planned to house their shook swarm in (yeah, right) on Sunday, and lifted them into it. Virtually the whole colony was there, tucked behind the eaves. I'm fairly certain the queen went in, and they gradually pottered into the box, rather slowly because it was getting dusk anyway. I left it there and will have a look tomorrow to see if I've been successful. It was either that or risk them legging (winging?) it first thing tomorrow before I could hive them.

 

[taff..]

you're lucky that they were spotted and you were able to go and retrieve them.

no such luck here

 

[Gardenbees]

Very fortunate. They're still there today, so hopefully they'll stay... although there's no guarantee even then (hived swarms quite often abscond). Sorry you lost yours.

My other colonies are keen to swarm, and I spent this morning faffing around with boxes, shook-swarming one and splitting the other. Even now I'm not sure that they won't leg it - the weather is perfect and they're much stronger than they normally are at this time of year. You try and do everything by the book, but unfortunately they can't read. Never a dull moment!

 

[Mike a]

always has the 'Murphy' element just waiting to go wrong


last saturday I did an artificail swarm, made absolutely sure, 100% that there was not a QC on the frame that was transfered, and I planned on checking that frame 4 days later for QC's.

so as soon as I got home this afternoon I went straight over to inspect and sure enough, there's 4 capped cells and not many bees, arse. -->

Not sure I fully get the process you used Taff.
So you did an AS before you found any primed queen cells or play cups in the parent hive
or
Did the queen get moved during the AS?

From what you've written it sounds to me like you left the queen in the same hive and you tried to reduce the colony in size by AS them before any signs of play cups.?

 

[taff..]

Not sure I fully get the process you used Taff.
So you did an AS before you found any primed queen cells or play cups in the parent hive
or
Did the queen get moved during the AS?

From what you've written it sounds to me like you left the queen in the same hive and you tried to reduce the colony in size by AS them before any signs of play cups.?

two weeks ago there was just eggs in the play cups but no royal jelly, last week there was grubs in the play cups so I did an AS.

the single frame that was left at the old site with the queen on was checked to make 100% sure there was no queen cells in the queen right part... just a normal AS.


the queenless part was split into two with a nice looking cell in each part for increases.

 

[Mike a]

two weeks ago there was just eggs in the play cups but no royal jelly, last week there was grubs in the play cups so I did an AS.

the single frame that was left at the old site with the queen on was checked to make 100% sure there was no queen cells in the queen right part... just a normal AS.

the queenless part was split into two with a nice looking cell in each part for increases.

Cheers, make sense to me now.