- Joined
- Feb 24, 2011
- Messages
- 1,562
- Reaction score
- 26
- Location
- near King's Lynn
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 50+. Double Std National & 14x12
It does seem to be the time to be patient.
Not a quality I exactly excell in but I have learnt to bide my time if it will make the long term result a better one.
So I am resisting looking in hives that I dont need to, have no real reason to or may make the situation worse if I do.
I am talking about collected swarms and more importantly for me my AS that I have recently performed. I am leaving them alone.
Couple of weeks from now I reason that if left alone the situation will not deteriorate much more than it could compared with now. It could and should be a whole lot better. I should have mated and laying queens in both halves of all my AS (original queen should be laying anyway). Virgins hatched mated and expanding their new colony.
Time I feel is almost on my side for a change, time to relax a bit after a frantic 2 - 3 weeks. Whats the worst that could happen, I could end up with 100% failures on all my AS and the swarms could all be drone layers, then what ....I unite and go back to the start position I was in a few weeks ago with just a small gap in brood rearing in some colonies but an influx of bees from collected swarms.
So for now its make a few super frames and add a super as required but leave the brood boxes alone. Hey I might even do some extracting.
That said I have 2 hives that I will check the brood boxes on because I have good reason too........ both were small colonies 3 - 4 frames of brood 15 days ago and at last inspection 2 days ago both were on 8 frames of brood (std national) and had empty play cups..........so we all know what comes next, yes these 2 will have a swarm check in another couple of days.
But the others I will leave untill I have good reason to pull their nest apart.
They have plenty of stores and room to lay and store. They are all low or very low varroa count and show no signs of other diseases. Plenty of forage is available.
Please feel free to list the reasons why you think I should change my thinking of dont pull them apart just for the sake of it.
Pete D
Not a quality I exactly excell in but I have learnt to bide my time if it will make the long term result a better one.
So I am resisting looking in hives that I dont need to, have no real reason to or may make the situation worse if I do.
I am talking about collected swarms and more importantly for me my AS that I have recently performed. I am leaving them alone.
Couple of weeks from now I reason that if left alone the situation will not deteriorate much more than it could compared with now. It could and should be a whole lot better. I should have mated and laying queens in both halves of all my AS (original queen should be laying anyway). Virgins hatched mated and expanding their new colony.
Time I feel is almost on my side for a change, time to relax a bit after a frantic 2 - 3 weeks. Whats the worst that could happen, I could end up with 100% failures on all my AS and the swarms could all be drone layers, then what ....I unite and go back to the start position I was in a few weeks ago with just a small gap in brood rearing in some colonies but an influx of bees from collected swarms.
So for now its make a few super frames and add a super as required but leave the brood boxes alone. Hey I might even do some extracting.
That said I have 2 hives that I will check the brood boxes on because I have good reason too........ both were small colonies 3 - 4 frames of brood 15 days ago and at last inspection 2 days ago both were on 8 frames of brood (std national) and had empty play cups..........so we all know what comes next, yes these 2 will have a swarm check in another couple of days.
But the others I will leave untill I have good reason to pull their nest apart.
They have plenty of stores and room to lay and store. They are all low or very low varroa count and show no signs of other diseases. Plenty of forage is available.
Please feel free to list the reasons why you think I should change my thinking of dont pull them apart just for the sake of it.
Pete D
I am at the same stage loads of AS's 
