MJBee
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,812
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Dordogne 24360 France
- Hive Type
- Commercial
- Number of Hives
- 16 a mix of Commercial, National, 14 x 12, Dadant and a Warre
My manic colony is still throwing up surprises. There is just a hint of a queen cell on the test frame given on 13 Aug - will wait and see.
Meanwhile the top super had had a clearer board under it for 6 days so I took it off and brought it home. When I took the coverboard off there were lots of bees still in it so I started to brush them off and put the beeless frames in an empty super. About half way through I came across 2 frames with all 4 sides having an area of drone brood about the size of a saucer
There is still 1 super on the hive which I have not looked at and which may well be full of drone brood, but at least I seem to have a drone laying queen somewhere above the excluder.How she got there is a mystery as I am always careful and check the underside of the excluder before putting it anywhere near the supers.
I put the two frames in a nuc with a dummy board and tipped all the bees in, within a minute they were fanning and in 5 minutes all were in and quiet. Tomorrow the great queen hunt begins - again
Meanwhile the top super had had a clearer board under it for 6 days so I took it off and brought it home. When I took the coverboard off there were lots of bees still in it so I started to brush them off and put the beeless frames in an empty super. About half way through I came across 2 frames with all 4 sides having an area of drone brood about the size of a saucer
There is still 1 super on the hive which I have not looked at and which may well be full of drone brood, but at least I seem to have a drone laying queen somewhere above the excluder.How she got there is a mystery as I am always careful and check the underside of the excluder before putting it anywhere near the supers.
I put the two frames in a nuc with a dummy board and tipped all the bees in, within a minute they were fanning and in 5 minutes all were in and quiet. Tomorrow the great queen hunt begins - again