Three hives one queen no eggs ?

[Freer4]

Hi I had one large ish hive which was going to swarm, so slit and made a nuc to expand!
All fine then nuc swarmed when virgins hatched, luckily into a Spare hive.
I combined the nuc an the swarm after no queen mated or survived?
Then two weeks ago the original hive swarmed which I caught, now in hive.
Looked through all three yesterday, no eggs in any, a queen in original hive which I found in the super and flew out but got it in the hive.
The other two I can't find a queen in, but one had a queen cell in with a grub in, open?
What should I do? Give up and jump in a hole or should I combine and bye a queen?

 

[Queens59]

The hive with the charged (filled) cell - leave, and let them get on with it.

The others - you give no timeline - how long are we talking? If not too long - in this weather they may be waiting for a succession of fine days to mate. Give them time. If it has been too long eg. longer than 43 days - it may be you need to combine, but write out a timeline and think about it - otherwise you could do more harm than good.

 

[Freer4]

I should start Writing things down!!!
About the middle of may the original hive was split, a week later the nuc swarmed was then united back together three weeks ago cos of no queen, or eggs.
Two weeks ago the rest of the original hive swarmed but caught and hived.
The queen in original hive must have died or kicked out cos the swarm hasn't started laying yet so must be a virgin?

 

[adrian wilford]

dont despair, its the year!

 

[The Doctor]

I had a similar situation this year....

Its the weather - swarming despite taking measures - never knew what was going on really - laying workers, drone laying queen, grumpy bees!!!

bad points - cost 3 new queens and a lot of messing about for no honey.
Good points - Re-queened with pure bred stock and learnt a lot about splitting and uniting. First 2 years of bee keeping were very easy so the learning curve this year was steep.

Sean

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I should start Writing things down!!!

Yes!!

You're working blind if you don't know dates. Notes are very important. You can also check back year to year to see what happen previously which can be useful. I need to write things down as there's no way I'd remember otherwise.

 

[REDWOOD]

Huge learning curve second and third years, a big test on patience and finances buying new equipment you don't have or did not think you needed, as long as you come out the other side and still have your bees things are not that bad

 

[The Doctor]

Also meant to add - have started recording notes - when and what we did. It helps.

 

[Beeyonce]

Huge learning curve second and third years, a big test on patience and finances buying new equipment you don't have or did not think you needed, as long as you come out the other side and still have your bees things are not that bad

Hear hear on that one. It's my third year and I feel that I know nothing....one hive has been text book fine (hope that's not tempting fate!!!) the other has been a disaster since April, trying one thing after another. Am spending my evenings searching for answers. Sigh.

 

[Freer4]

It's never simple, they keep on throwing more challenges at us.
From this day on I'm going write every thing down well il try!!!
Thanks for the replies il be back in touch if it all works out or il be on the scrounge for queens?

 

[The Doctor]

We have tried to re-queen 2 colonies so far. Only one succesful on 1st attempt. We had a buckfast q and a carni qu. THe carni is fine and the bucky disapeared. We are trying again - watch this space.

Sean

 

[Freer4]

Touch wood it works, weather looks to be on the up, so that should help the virgins?