Managed to get round my colonies, 10c but they are all in sunny sheltered sites, thank goodness. Had been fretting as 10-11 days since last inspection but knew queens were clipped so this took the edge off.
10 main colonies were all fine, between 6 and 15 frames brood, lots of drones, a few play cups but no queen cells. Some supers surprisingly good, others much slower than last year. If weather window had been better I would have set up Demarees but wanted to be quick. Forecast was hail after 3pm.
2 smaller colonies were superseding their queens. In one, I’d taken down one supersedure cell and put in a frame of eggs 6 days ago - too few drones end of April to have good mating. They’d made one cell from this donated frame and another from one of their own.
Queen still there. What to do...unsealed cell from donated frame looked slightly better, but really like the genetics of this colony, so kept their own sealed cell despite uncertainty re timings. Can always give a better queen later if doesn’t work out.
Overwintered Nuc with extension, was also I think superseding with 2 sealed cells. No eggs, no sign of queen, but stores were v low so think she may have gone off lay rather than swarmed and was on the side / bottom of the box. Fed them & reduced cells to one.
Overall pleased main colonies are biding their time, given the grotty weather which looks poor, though warmer nights, for the week ahead. Thinking we need to move to a warmer, drier part of the country. Perhaps I’m taking beekeeping a bit too seriously
10 main colonies were all fine, between 6 and 15 frames brood, lots of drones, a few play cups but no queen cells. Some supers surprisingly good, others much slower than last year. If weather window had been better I would have set up Demarees but wanted to be quick. Forecast was hail after 3pm.
2 smaller colonies were superseding their queens. In one, I’d taken down one supersedure cell and put in a frame of eggs 6 days ago - too few drones end of April to have good mating. They’d made one cell from this donated frame and another from one of their own.
Queen still there. What to do...unsealed cell from donated frame looked slightly better, but really like the genetics of this colony, so kept their own sealed cell despite uncertainty re timings. Can always give a better queen later if doesn’t work out.
Overwintered Nuc with extension, was also I think superseding with 2 sealed cells. No eggs, no sign of queen, but stores were v low so think she may have gone off lay rather than swarmed and was on the side / bottom of the box. Fed them & reduced cells to one.
Overall pleased main colonies are biding their time, given the grotty weather which looks poor, though warmer nights, for the week ahead. Thinking we need to move to a warmer, drier part of the country. Perhaps I’m taking beekeeping a bit too seriously
