Terry G
House Bee
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2013
- Messages
- 170
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Kent
- Hive Type
- Langstroth
- Number of Hives
- 2. No, 3. No, 2 again
The story so far: starting with one hive, carried out an AS on April 7th. Horrid weather, possibly no significant drone posse in the region, no great expectation of successful queenage. Would have combined quite soon but encouraged by this forum to hang on in there.
Two weeks ago, no sign of queen activity so put in a test frame (forum advice again). A few days later a shed-load of QCs, some charged so obviously Q-. But a few days after that, all QCs had totally vanished...and eggs seen on an adjacent frame!
And so to yesterday.
Two frames well covered with brood, fat queen spotted by Jan and marked (rather scruffily I must confess; we now have an emerald green queen. Should be easy to spot in future if she hasn't died of paint fumes).
So after all that, we decided to routinely inspect hive 1 only to discover about 8 uncapped queen cells and one uncapped. And no queen. Knocked the QCs back to leave one juicy one, and closed up.
Then she of the eagle eyes spotted a huge swarm in an adjacent oleaster bush, so up on the roof of the house I went to retrieve a bait hive, into which we dropped the swarm. Eagle eyes then spotted our old queen hanging around on the outside of the box and promptly ran her into the hive.
Then (blimey is there no end to this?) we heard loud piping coming from hive 1, so apparently that uncapped QC we had found was a hatched cell and a new queen had already emerged. Somewhat dazed by now we decided, for better or worse, not to go back in to knock down the capped cell as the bees had already suffered a prolonged inspection. We'll deal with the consequences, whatever they might be.
Then off in the evening to see Arcade Fire at Earls Court, which was the calmest part of the day.
So, major lessons: 1. New queens can take an agonisingly long time to come into lay - around 50 days in our case. 2. Yes, it is possible to miss queen cells if you are not vigilant. 3. If possible, marry someone who is really good at spotting unmarked queens and hidden swarms. 4. The forum is an excellent source of advice, even if some of is delivered in rather truculent fashion. 5. Don't go to an Arcade Fire gig if you want to be able to hear anything the next day.
Two weeks ago, no sign of queen activity so put in a test frame (forum advice again). A few days later a shed-load of QCs, some charged so obviously Q-. But a few days after that, all QCs had totally vanished...and eggs seen on an adjacent frame!
And so to yesterday.
Two frames well covered with brood, fat queen spotted by Jan and marked (rather scruffily I must confess; we now have an emerald green queen. Should be easy to spot in future if she hasn't died of paint fumes).
So after all that, we decided to routinely inspect hive 1 only to discover about 8 uncapped queen cells and one uncapped. And no queen. Knocked the QCs back to leave one juicy one, and closed up.
Then she of the eagle eyes spotted a huge swarm in an adjacent oleaster bush, so up on the roof of the house I went to retrieve a bait hive, into which we dropped the swarm. Eagle eyes then spotted our old queen hanging around on the outside of the box and promptly ran her into the hive.
Then (blimey is there no end to this?) we heard loud piping coming from hive 1, so apparently that uncapped QC we had found was a hatched cell and a new queen had already emerged. Somewhat dazed by now we decided, for better or worse, not to go back in to knock down the capped cell as the bees had already suffered a prolonged inspection. We'll deal with the consequences, whatever they might be.
Then off in the evening to see Arcade Fire at Earls Court, which was the calmest part of the day.
So, major lessons: 1. New queens can take an agonisingly long time to come into lay - around 50 days in our case. 2. Yes, it is possible to miss queen cells if you are not vigilant. 3. If possible, marry someone who is really good at spotting unmarked queens and hidden swarms. 4. The forum is an excellent source of advice, even if some of is delivered in rather truculent fashion. 5. Don't go to an Arcade Fire gig if you want to be able to hear anything the next day.
