match
House Bee
- Joined
- May 20, 2009
- Messages
- 124
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- SE Scotland
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6-8
I finally managed to get into my colony this week, as the weather seems to have finally turned dry and still enough for a proper inspection.
There's plenty of stores in the hive, a small, but reasonable number of bees (tightly packed over 2 frames, and a good number wandering about elsewhere), and the queen moving about on the central 'empty' frames, looking healthy enough. However there was no sign of eggs or brood anywhere.
I've heard of queens turning into drone layers, but not failing to lay altogether. The bees are foraging, and all the returning bees are bringing pollen in (though there's a decent enough amount of pollen in the frames too).
A second hive at the apiary has a laying queen in it, and I'm tempted to take some eggs from that hive and transplant them in if there's still no sign of laying by this weekend - I figure if the queen is being slow, they'll just raise the brood, but if she's stopped laying they'll try to supersede her.
So I have 2 questions... is this unreasonably late in the year for the queen to decide to start laying? Its been pretty cold up here in Edinburgh (especially overnight) but we'd had 3-4 days of 'good' weather before my inspection in which she could have got going.
I'm also wondering though if its too late in the year now to try for supersedure? Will the winter workers last long enough to raise young brood from a new queen, or would I need to keep putting in brood from the other hive to boost their population?
Any advice greatly appreciated!
There's plenty of stores in the hive, a small, but reasonable number of bees (tightly packed over 2 frames, and a good number wandering about elsewhere), and the queen moving about on the central 'empty' frames, looking healthy enough. However there was no sign of eggs or brood anywhere.
I've heard of queens turning into drone layers, but not failing to lay altogether. The bees are foraging, and all the returning bees are bringing pollen in (though there's a decent enough amount of pollen in the frames too).
A second hive at the apiary has a laying queen in it, and I'm tempted to take some eggs from that hive and transplant them in if there's still no sign of laying by this weekend - I figure if the queen is being slow, they'll just raise the brood, but if she's stopped laying they'll try to supersede her.
So I have 2 questions... is this unreasonably late in the year for the queen to decide to start laying? Its been pretty cold up here in Edinburgh (especially overnight) but we'd had 3-4 days of 'good' weather before my inspection in which she could have got going.
I'm also wondering though if its too late in the year now to try for supersedure? Will the winter workers last long enough to raise young brood from a new queen, or would I need to keep putting in brood from the other hive to boost their population?
Any advice greatly appreciated!