'transporting' 4 day old eggs

[peteinwilts]

Hi Guys

I am hoping to gain some more eggs in my cup kit which 'should' be due on Sunday.

I have used a queen in my nicest apiary to create the eggs. However, I am unhappy to use the nice colonys to raise the eggs to produce the QC's, so want to move the eggs to another apiary where I have a couple of large colonys ready to recieve them.

The apiary I want to move them to is a whisker under a kilometer away, and is about a 20 minute walk. (unfortunately the fields are waterlogged and the grass thigh-waist deep, so is not easily drive-able and the tractor would wreck the fields)

On Sunday the weather forecast is 22 degrees .

My question is, what is the safest way to transport the four day old eggs to my other apiary without drying\chilling them?

Place the cupkit in a plastic bag\tuppaware box? Any better suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Pete

 

[Black Comb]

Seem to remember this has been asked before and the advice was wrap in a damp towel.
I'll be doing the same shortly so look forward to other replies.

 

[peteinwilts]

Seem to remember this has been asked before and the advice was wrap in a damp towel.
I'll be doing the same shortly so look forward to other replies.

a prepared warm and damp towel maybe? (kept in a food flask until ready?)

 

[For want of a better word]

I made up a battery operated micro incubator set at 33 deg and 70 % humidity
seems that a box with a sealed lid and a warm and damp towel would suffice.
getting cold and drying out seems to be the problem to overcome.
was wondering why it would not be easier to move the q+/ q- colony?

 

[peteinwilts]

I made up a battery operated micro incubator set at 33 deg and 70 % humidity
seems that a box with a sealed lid and a warm and damp towel would suffice.
getting cold and drying out seems to be the problem to overcome.
was wondering why it would not be easier to move the q+/ q- colony?

Easily made? I can do electronics and manufacturing. Any plans?

At the moment, moving any colonys over the remote fields\apiarys are a nightmare.
They would have been mown a few weeks ago if they were not waterlogged.. They fields are full of clover and am dreading distributing the supers. (weather is looking pretty good next week!)

I am hoping by the time the Q's are ready, the ground will be dry enough to drive on, and a perimeter mown for easy access...

 

[fatshark]

Surely at four days they won't be eggs ...

My recollection is that eggs are really robust and can be posted successfully (though these days they might not arrive in four days). I move grafted larvae about wrapped in a damp warm tea towel (just draped over the cell bar frame) in a two-frame wooden nuc. If the trip is more than 30 minutes, or it's particularly cold, I'd slide a "freezer block" warmed to ~40 degrees centigrade in the sink. Works every time.

For a Cupkit I'd wrap them in some damp kitchen roll or cloth and just carry them in a polystyrene box. For a 20 minute walk (wade?) this will be fine.

 

[Poly Hive]

No need to think hi tech.. a warm damp towel for 20 mins is more than enough.

PH

 

[susbees]

Surely at four days they won't be eggs ...

.

Day old larvae...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Finman]

.
Put the piece of comb in small plastic bag and the bag against your belly between shirt and skin.

 

[Midland Beek]

I don't know if I fancy anyone's chances at queen reaing if they do not know that an egg is only an egg for three days.

Surely you should be transporting somewhat robust eggs and not delicate day-old larvae?

 

[peteinwilts]

written in a hurry... obviously I know the difference between an egg and a newly emerged larvae.

Thank you very much for the helpful posts!

Less thanks for those that are being pedantic in an attempted troll!! (do we really need these sorts of posts!!?!... not big and not clever!)

 

[For want of a better word]

I don't know if I fancy anyone's chances at queen reaing if they do not know that an egg is only an egg for three days.

Surely you should be transporting somewhat robust eggs and not delicate day-old larvae?

thereby hangs a tale!

Using a nicot cup system, left cover off after releasing queen, bees must have eaten / removed eggs and queen returned to lay more.
i could not see any little larvae, but a few unhatched eggs.. these cups went to finishing q- hive. not one was turned into a queen cell

my presumption is that unhatched eggs will not work, why suggest transporting them

not a troll, but interested in answers​

now you could start with... think about it !

 

[peteinwilts]

thereby hangs a tale!

Using a nicot cup system, left cover off after releasing queen, bees must have eaten / removed eggs and queen returned to lay more.
i could not see any little larvae, but a few unhatched eggs.. these cups went to finishing q- hive. not one was turned into a queen cell

my presumption is that unhatched eggs will not work, why suggest transporting them

not a troll, but interested in answers​

now you could start with... think about it !

I have not looked to see if there are eggs yet. I have had some success using the cupkit, but this is the first time I have needed to transport the 'larvae' further than a small number of yards.

Theoretically, If the queen was a good girl and started laying immediately, the eggs will be 4 days and 14 hours old.... however, chances are she did not and have to 'presume' she laid over the space of several hours or even longer...
so maybe I should rename the thread " 'transporting' what I hope to be less than one day old larvae, but may in fact be three day old eggs or the mix of the two with some eggs still hatching into larvae, unless the bees have eaten the eggs in which I will not require advice at all"

as an fyi, my first go at creating queens succeeded with unhatched eggs (albeit limited success).

My last success locked the queen in and released her afterwards (I forgot to take the plug out on the rear after filling it with candy.).

This time I have unplugged the plug, so the bees have probably released her... whether I have bees\larvae\earwigs, I have no idea, but will not look until Sunday!

 

[Hombre]

dave-cushman.net/bee/eggtransplant.html

A good place to read on the subject. A receiving colony needs to have no queen of course or the eggs will probably be eaten.

Add the http://www. to the link above to be a link - of course.