What did you do in the Apiary today?

[The Poot]

Test frame?

Tried that and no queen cells created. Killed introduced queen and ended in laying workers. The issue was a very small virgin queen in the colony that I was unable to find until I shook them out.

 

[GuyNir]

She has laid eggs, they've hatched, larvae in a lovely classic pattern seen last inspection, now sealed and confirmed worker brood

Safe to say mated

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Tried that and no queen cells created.

A good indication that a queen was already present.

 

[GuyNir]

Tried that and no queen cells created. Killed introduced queen and ended in laying workers. The issue was a very small virgin queen in the colony that I was unable to find until I shook them out.

And some say bees always know best

 

[gregior]

Quick visit to home apiary to remove any ripe honey as i'm getting pestered by customers. Pretty thin gruel only got 1 super from 5 hives,there's an OK flow on but nothing special and not much of the stuff in the supers is ready yet. On the plus side all queens are laying very well and no signs of swarming .

 

[masterBK]

Got some supers out of storage on monday late in evening and stacked them temporarily next to the shed ready to take down to the out-apiary on tuesday. I like to check through the frames and remove and replace any with too much drone and any old black ones not forgetting to kill any wax moth larvae /pupae found. I thought they were sealed off but yesterday at lunch time when I decided to carry out these checks I discovered a caste swarm had entered the stack via a small gap near the bottom rail of a super. I shook them off the super shallows into a 5 comb nucleus box (one drawn frame , 3 of foundation and a dummy board). This is the second time in as many weeks that a swarm has moved into boxes of combs within hours of them being put out.
I then went down to the out-apiary with these supers to top up colonies that needed more room. Checked the colonies for swarm cells (none found) and replaced 4 more queens with current years queens. Bees were generally a bit edgy yesterday compared to normal. I think the flow has stopped as the flowers (clover has yieded well this year) have dried up after weeks of baking sun (sandy land for miles around) but maybe they may be sensing the coming storms. Hopefully the forecasted rain for thursday will refresh the plants to start secreting again. Dog roses are out and the the blackberries and lime trees are getting ready for later this month. A large field of late planted spring rape should also come on stream next month. If all goes to plan (so far none of the production colonies have managed to swarm and beat my controls) should be a good year for honey.

 

[Moobee]

Eventful inspection today! Found the previously virgin queen in my cast swarm, who is now laying merrily (& very fat!) so she’s been clipped and marked.
Main hive is oddly queenless - only capped and older uncapped brood, no sign of eggs or young brood but no QCs either. Queen was clipped and the boxes are stuffed full of bees so they haven’t swarmed.
Luckily I have a nuc with a new spare mated queen so I am uniting them over a sheet of newspaper. Wish me luck!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Eventful inspection today! Found the previously virgin queen in my cast swarm, who is now laying merrily (& very fat!) so she’s been clipped and marked.
Main hive is oddly queenless - only capped and older uncapped brood, no sign of eggs or young brood but no QCs either. Queen was clipped and the boxes are stuffed full of bees so they haven’t swarmed.
Luckily I have a nuc with a new spare mated queen so I am uniting them over a sheet of newspaper. Wish me luck!

Test frame first.

 

[Moobee]

Test frame first.

Unfortunately I don't have a spare test frame - my cast swarm queen has only just started laying (on one frame) and ditto in my nuc

 

[Erichalfbee]

Unfortunately I don't have a spare test frame - my cast swarm queen has only just started laying (on one frame) and ditto in my nuc

So if you have a colony with a virgin queen United to a nuc with a laying queen what do you think is the likely outcome?

 

[North End Bees]

Main hive is oddly queenless - only capped and older uncapped brood, no sign of eggs or young brood but no QCs either.

Q poss taking a short brood break. Esp if flow had finished. May well have been hiding out on the floor when you looked.
Take a small portion of a frame of E/young larvae that the other hive can spare.
Otherwise quite likely to lose one of your united queens

 

[Erichalfbee]

Unfortunately I don't have a spare test frame - my cast swarm queen has only just started laying (on one frame) and ditto in my nuc

If I were you I would wait a week till you can move a frame with young larvae over for three days or else cut a few out with a biscuit cutter now.

 

[Moobee]

So if you have a colony with a virgin queen United to a nuc with a laying queen what do you think is the likely outcome?

I’m 99.9% certain there is no queen in the main hive. Checked every frame twice and only inspected a week ago. My original queen was clipped and marked so would not be able to fly or swarm anywhere far. There have been no QCs anywhere. I can only think that as a clumsy newbee I somehow lost/killed her a week or so ago.
Sorry, should have said that nuc queen was a bought in mated & marked local.

 

[Moobee]

Q poss taking a short brood break. Esp if flow had finished. May well have been hiding out on the floor when you looked.
Take a small portion of a frame of E/young larvae that the other hive can spare.
Otherwise quite likely to lose one of your united queens

Still strong flow here…… wish the bees would learn to read the bee manuals
and I’m 99.9% certain there is no queen in the main hive.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’m 99.9% certain there is no queen in the main hive. Checked every frame twice and only inspected a week ago. My original queen was clipped and marked so would not be able to fly or swarm anywhere far. There have been no QCs anywhere. I can only think that as a clumsy newbee I somehow lost/killed her a week or so ago.
Sorry, should have said that nuc queen was a bought in mated & marked local.

If you killed her there would be emergency cells.
I wouldn’t risk a new queen in there. It’s up to you.

 

[Nannysbees]

Inspection day

Hive that swarmed -new queen laying(bluebell)

What was left from the swarm- new queen laying (blossom)

Hive we split then consequently replaced old queen with a bought queen as they tried to get rid of her last year - queen laying (Rosie)

Replaced chalkbrood queen with bought queen which disappeared and replaced by breeder unclipped today -Daisy
Things looking up, just afraid to say as this could change by the next inspection . Boiling in the beesuit but a pleasure in this gorgeous weather.

 

[enrico]

I inspected yesterday and wrote ...... Strong hive, loads of brood and no queen cells ....... Today they swarmed ....took two hours to get them from high up in a thick hedge. Determined to get them for it was my best queen. Apiary getting a bit packed!

 

[Moobee]

If you killed her there would be emergency cells.
I wouldn’t risk a new queen in there. It’s up to you.

If she’s somehow gone AWOL, why would they not have built EQCs? She’s definitely not there and brood looks like she’s been missing for a while and I think I’ve been very thorough in checking for QCs. I’m baffled as to what has happened.

 

[North End Bees]

I’m 99.9% certain there is no queen in the main hive. Checked every frame twice and only inspected a week ago.

Do you have a spare brood box? You could shake all the bees from the frames and replace bee-less frames into new box. Add bees back by shaking in over a QX.

 

[North End Bees]

If she’s somehow gone AWOL, why would they not have built EQCs?

They would have done. They had the approp age larvae.