What a pickle i got in

[Bakerbee]

I took my chances for an inspection of a hive today. Weather is warm but a tad windy in dorset this afternoon. I was inspecting this hive that has been building up nicely last week. Reason bring i have time today and its not raining..They are AMMs. Well upon inspection last week as i was looking for BIAS on a frame the queen decided to jump ship and fly off! I could see her red dot circling about until i lost sight of her. I put the hive back together with qe then super that was to one side and prayed she came back. The next day i went through the brood box and saw no sign of her so i closed them up and have left them a week to raise another queen. So today i took a look through and saw no sign of any emergency qc. Very strange. Im pretty good at spotting queens so questioned had i missed her twice now? As i was putting the super back on still perplexed at no queen or qc's found, i dropped the super and 8 frames fell out! After a few choice words i proceeded to pick them up and place them back into the super and who should i spot but the queen merrily going about her way laying in all the spare cells in the super! She must have flown and landed onto the super put to one side and when i put the hive back together trapped her up there with the qe. Now im left with a super full of eggs. Any ideas how to revert this back to a honey super. I have put another super above this one for honey and placed a qe below and above it. Im hoping that as they emerge they will clean their cells up and go down to the main hive for house duties now the queen is back where she should be.. ha e i done the right thing?

 

[JonnyPicklechin]

Make sure your queen is under the QE and put the super back and let then eggs hatch and do their thing; emerging bees will join the throng in the normal way and the super will revert to honey super in the fullness of time.

Just make sure that the super is not drone brood otherwise they will be stuck above the QE when they hatch.

 

[Swarm]

I took my chances for an inspection of a hive today. Weather is warm but a tad windy in dorset this afternoon. I was inspecting this hive that has been building up nicely last week. Reason bring i have time today and its not raining..They are AMMs. Well upon inspection last week as i was looking for BIAS on a frame the queen decided to jump ship and fly off! I could see her red dot circling about until i lost sight of her. I put the hive back together with qe then super that was to one side and prayed she came back. The next day i went through the brood box and saw no sign of her so i closed them up and have left them a week to raise another queen. So today i took a look through and saw no sign of any emergency qc. Very strange. Im pretty good at spotting queens so questioned had i missed her twice now? As i was putting the super back on still perplexed at no queen or qc's found, i dropped the super and 8 frames fell out! After a few choice words i proceeded to pick them up and place them back into the super and who should i spot but the queen merrily going about her way laying in all the spare cells in the super! She must have flown and landed onto the super put to one side and when i put the hive back together trapped her up there with the qe. Now im left with a super full of eggs. Any ideas how to revert this back to a honey super. I have put another super above this one for honey and placed a qe below and above it. Im hoping that as they emerge they will clean their cells up and go down to the main hive for house duties now the queen is back where she should be.. ha e i done the right thing?

Hello Bakerbee,
You say she is back where she should be, I assume that you put her into the brood chamber?
Just put the excluder on and the supers above it. They will soon fill the brooded one with nectar as the new bees emerge, you don't need the second excluder.

 

[For want of a better word]

Wonderful story....

Leave all the excluders out for the time being.... next time put a qx on top and a super on top..... let her lay where she wants to!

Chons da

 

[Bakerbee]

Yes i put her back in the brood chamber. Relieved she was in there. Annoyed with myself its taken a week to figure out. Amazed these bees remained calm while dropping them. And generally learnt alot from this episode.

 

[Poly Hive]

When this happens do NOT go away. The last thing she saw was YOU.

So if you toddle off you are removing her landmark. Give it half an hour or so and most often the return after getting over the fright that some heavy-handed person gave them.

PH

 

[Swarm]

Yes i put her back in the brood chamber. Relieved she was in there. Annoyed with myself its taken a week to figure out. Amazed these bees remained calm while dropping them. And generally learnt alot from this episode.

They sound like a lovely colony of black bees.

 

[Bakerbee]

They really are swarm. They are quiet on the comb. I didnt even get bumped during the dropping incident. Really enjoying watching them build up from nuc to full colony.