- Joined
- May 19, 2014
- Messages
- 92
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Oldham
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 3
I recently split my only hive in an attempt to stop them swarming after finding some sealed QC's during an inspection. This was on July 9th. We .had not seen a swarm leave, but the presence of QC's and being unable to spot the queen led us to believe that it was very likely that they had already swarmed
I knocked down all but one QC and moved this frame to a new brood box along with two other frames of brood and two of stores. I also added three frames of foundation (didn't have any more ready), one at the front the hive and two at the back.
Neither my mentor nor I was able to find the queen at the time (she wasn't marked), and it appears that I may have transferred her over to the new hive as a week after the split there were no uncapped brood in there and the QC that I transferred had been broken down, but by July 25 there were some quite large larvae present which seems too soon for a newly hatched queen to have laid?
The original hive had masses of QC's on inspection which were knocked down to one as well, and last week she hatched when I was inspecting.
Anyway, I inspected the new hive again today and found that although there was plenty of BIAS and stores, they hadn't really started to draw out the new foundation that I had put in on the 9th.
I also managed to mark the queen in the new hive today as well, the first time I have seen any queen whilst inspecting on my own.
There were plenty of bees in the colony at 4pm today, and I added the missing frames of foundation but I am a little concerned that they haven't really started to draw out any new frames yet just in case the queen decides to swarm as she hasn't enough space to lay in.
So, my question is should I feed or not, and if so should it be 1:1?
Thanks
Andy
I knocked down all but one QC and moved this frame to a new brood box along with two other frames of brood and two of stores. I also added three frames of foundation (didn't have any more ready), one at the front the hive and two at the back.
Neither my mentor nor I was able to find the queen at the time (she wasn't marked), and it appears that I may have transferred her over to the new hive as a week after the split there were no uncapped brood in there and the QC that I transferred had been broken down, but by July 25 there were some quite large larvae present which seems too soon for a newly hatched queen to have laid?
The original hive had masses of QC's on inspection which were knocked down to one as well, and last week she hatched when I was inspecting.
Anyway, I inspected the new hive again today and found that although there was plenty of BIAS and stores, they hadn't really started to draw out the new foundation that I had put in on the 9th.
I also managed to mark the queen in the new hive today as well, the first time I have seen any queen whilst inspecting on my own.
There were plenty of bees in the colony at 4pm today, and I added the missing frames of foundation but I am a little concerned that they haven't really started to draw out any new frames yet just in case the queen decides to swarm as she hasn't enough space to lay in.
So, my question is should I feed or not, and if so should it be 1:1?
Thanks
Andy