Tremyfro
Queen Bee
- Joined
- May 19, 2014
- Messages
- 2,434
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Vale of Glamorgan
- Hive Type
- Beehaus
- Number of Hives
- Possibly...5 and a bit...depends on the bees.
We didn't have time to go into the hives yesterday. So we combined our inspection today with spraying the bees with thymol spray.
The first hive was the nuc which we did a place swop with a bigger hive as it didn't have enough bees. On opening...ooo lots of bees...nice. 5 frames of bias today so that is a definite improvement. However, we found a couple of sealed queen cells. So into a nuc they went and gave the colony another frame of comb for queenie to lay in.
Next was a beehaus....doing well and expanding nicely. Supered.
Then the nosema colony...now has 5 frames of bees plus eggs on another frame. We saw the queen on this frame checking out the spaces. So we removed a frame of store and added another empty drawn comb. I think they are getting over their nosema.
The last was another beehaus. Lots of bees. Then shock/horror...a frame with loads of queen cells....naughty naughty girls...there was still lots of room in the hive....then another queen cell on another frame. We took out the frames with the queen cells on them as they were all sealed and put them into nucs. Gave the queen two more drawn frames. Checked all the frames again but didn't see her but there are eggs in the cells so if next week there are more qcs we will do an artificial swarm into the other half of the beehaus. If she swarmed...they will make more QCs, if she is there we do the A/S, otherwise this colony may get my new carniolan queen when she arrives....being careful to ensure they are queen less first.
All nucs were assembled a la Ericalfbee.....it took us ages to do all this as everything had to be found in the Bee Shed...and now it needs tidying up again!
...for a moment....we suffered new season nerves and paralysis....then made decisions...albeit...probably not the best ones....hey ho .....relaxing with vino now which is making the whole experience seem totally rose tinted.
The first hive was the nuc which we did a place swop with a bigger hive as it didn't have enough bees. On opening...ooo lots of bees...nice. 5 frames of bias today so that is a definite improvement. However, we found a couple of sealed queen cells. So into a nuc they went and gave the colony another frame of comb for queenie to lay in.
Next was a beehaus....doing well and expanding nicely. Supered.
Then the nosema colony...now has 5 frames of bees plus eggs on another frame. We saw the queen on this frame checking out the spaces. So we removed a frame of store and added another empty drawn comb. I think they are getting over their nosema.
The last was another beehaus. Lots of bees. Then shock/horror...a frame with loads of queen cells....naughty naughty girls...there was still lots of room in the hive....then another queen cell on another frame. We took out the frames with the queen cells on them as they were all sealed and put them into nucs. Gave the queen two more drawn frames. Checked all the frames again but didn't see her but there are eggs in the cells so if next week there are more qcs we will do an artificial swarm into the other half of the beehaus. If she swarmed...they will make more QCs, if she is there we do the A/S, otherwise this colony may get my new carniolan queen when she arrives....being careful to ensure they are queen less first.
All nucs were assembled a la Ericalfbee.....it took us ages to do all this as everything had to be found in the Bee Shed...and now it needs tidying up again!
...for a moment....we suffered new season nerves and paralysis....then made decisions...albeit...probably not the best ones....hey ho .....relaxing with vino now which is making the whole experience seem totally rose tinted.
