- Joined
- Mar 31, 2019
- Messages
- 848
- Reaction score
- 368
- Location
- South Yorkshire
- Hive Type
- TBH
- Number of Hives
- 3
A bit of background, got my one and only hive (TBH) through the winter happily, it seemed to build up nicely through the early spring and mid April got together a second TBH with a view to increasing. By the last week in April things humming a long very well in Hive A and I decided to pre-empt any swarming activity by making a simple split. At this stage there were a few play cups but no sign of any serious queen rearing. I left the queen with 4 combs mixed brood/pollen and nectar and one of mostly capped honey and took the rest over to the new hive however I was uncomfortable as Hive A had had lots of drone brood and I kept asking myself how do I know I haven't just brought drone eggs over (there were eggs). A week later a I had a nose through Hive B and although a few cups had been drawn out they all appeared empty :-(, lots of capped drone a bit of capped workers - so having ascertained that Hive A was still doing well - they'd drawn at 2.5 new combs and again had plenty of stores and eggs - I took another comb of newly laid eggs from Hive and added to Hive B.
Further background - when I 1st installed the bees last year I just couldn't get them to take syrup (subsequently found out the holes had blocked with crystallized sugar - you live and learn) and they starved. I got to them before they'd all gone (but it was pretty desperate, falling form combs etc) and sprinkled with icing sugar, they revived in front of my eyes but since then I've been half expecting the queen to fail at some point. But the summer was good, come Autumn though oddly they had a comb and a half of drone again - I'd resigned to this being the problem I'd anticipated and readied myself to the risk that she'd gone drone laying and all might not be well come the spring; so I was pleased when they got through and seemed to begin to build up nicely with some classically 'good' concentric brood patterns. At inspections though I've been suspicious about the amount of drone comb I see is too much (at least half) and with a bit of luck the bees might try and sort it out by supersedure.
So back to today.
Hive B - I'm very happy, that comb I brought across has got some charged queen cells and one sealed queen cell. Probably about half of the comb I brought across has been capped as drone though. I put them away and I guess I'll just leave them alone for three weeks.
Hive A - oh dear; they've made more comb (Been an OSR flow nearby so I suspect this is how), they were grumpy and back up to almost 8 full combs but there is cross combing (not an issue I had at all last year).
Plenty of eggs, then drone, then mixed drone/worker (the queen seen on one of these), no frames had what I'd say is a great brood pattern - but they seem a bit honeybound too which I might hope is the explanation. Several play cups (never saw a one last year) nothing exciting until penultimate frame :nastily cross combed so I cut it minimally to inspect. The comb had drawn such that there was an extra fold of comb cutting across two bars - it's his I cut but horror of horror a clear queen cell spoiled. :-(
It was about half way up the comb, tucked up against the larger comb but on the edge not the face of the comb- so is it swarm or supersedure. Then on the last comb the attached picture - votes please it it swarm or supersedure. For clarity, the picture doesn't quite show it - but this is on the edge of a bifid comb - you can see the edge of the right hand side combing up behind the cell in question.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wx7s501guihj66b/img_3062.jpg?dl=0
If it is which I suspect it is then any advice as to how to proceed - I guess I have to AS and then recombine?
Sorry for the long post.
Many many thanks
Neil
Further background - when I 1st installed the bees last year I just couldn't get them to take syrup (subsequently found out the holes had blocked with crystallized sugar - you live and learn) and they starved. I got to them before they'd all gone (but it was pretty desperate, falling form combs etc) and sprinkled with icing sugar, they revived in front of my eyes but since then I've been half expecting the queen to fail at some point. But the summer was good, come Autumn though oddly they had a comb and a half of drone again - I'd resigned to this being the problem I'd anticipated and readied myself to the risk that she'd gone drone laying and all might not be well come the spring; so I was pleased when they got through and seemed to begin to build up nicely with some classically 'good' concentric brood patterns. At inspections though I've been suspicious about the amount of drone comb I see is too much (at least half) and with a bit of luck the bees might try and sort it out by supersedure.
So back to today.
Hive B - I'm very happy, that comb I brought across has got some charged queen cells and one sealed queen cell. Probably about half of the comb I brought across has been capped as drone though. I put them away and I guess I'll just leave them alone for three weeks.
Hive A - oh dear; they've made more comb (Been an OSR flow nearby so I suspect this is how), they were grumpy and back up to almost 8 full combs but there is cross combing (not an issue I had at all last year).
Plenty of eggs, then drone, then mixed drone/worker (the queen seen on one of these), no frames had what I'd say is a great brood pattern - but they seem a bit honeybound too which I might hope is the explanation. Several play cups (never saw a one last year) nothing exciting until penultimate frame :nastily cross combed so I cut it minimally to inspect. The comb had drawn such that there was an extra fold of comb cutting across two bars - it's his I cut but horror of horror a clear queen cell spoiled. :-(
It was about half way up the comb, tucked up against the larger comb but on the edge not the face of the comb- so is it swarm or supersedure. Then on the last comb the attached picture - votes please it it swarm or supersedure. For clarity, the picture doesn't quite show it - but this is on the edge of a bifid comb - you can see the edge of the right hand side combing up behind the cell in question.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wx7s501guihj66b/img_3062.jpg?dl=0
If it is which I suspect it is then any advice as to how to proceed - I guess I have to AS and then recombine?
Sorry for the long post.
Many many thanks
Neil