What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Peter Vanstone]

No. Laying workers will fly home. Bees orientate at only a few days old so they know where they live.
If you shake the bees you have to remove their home entirely. The bees will beg their way into other colonies in the same site. Laying workers will stop laying and any queen will be refused entry anywhere.

Thankyou for the help.

 

[Peter Vanstone]

What sort of foundation is in the bait hive?

Top grade Thorne’s.l use nothing else.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Top grade Thorne’s.l use nothing else.

Worker?

 

[Ian123]

Could be a cast that the virgin fails to mate properly….I’d very much doubt they would even be in position to swarm with a drone layer

 

[JamezF]

The thinking must be that laying workers must be very young,you would need to dissect there ovaries,perhaps it’s a myth that’s come on from the dark ages,but l still don’t know how common a drone laying swarm queen from the start is.thankyou for the help.

What happens with a virgin queen that fails to mate in time due to poor weather, say? Does she immediately become a DLQ? I have no idea.

James

 

[JamezF]

Some people think,wax moth larvae go on a walk about at night,never seen any myself.perhaps the queen does.

If she did I suspect people might notice queens going missing relatively regularly. Perhaps even more so those who clip wings.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

If she did I suspect people might notice queens going missing relatively regularly. Perhaps even more so those who clip wings.

James

There was a beekeeper on Anglesey who swore that somebody was stealing her queens in the night

 

[Peter Vanstone]

Mated or unmated?

I don’t think mated or unmated matters,say my drones were laid 20 April.six weeks back from that my queen was a pretty young thing no drones about and bad weather,she was infertile,she left the hive with a fair swarm,or as a barren queen she left a hive as a hunger swarm,or she was ejected from a working hive.lts just that after 45 years and a considerable number of swarms l’v never seen a queen lay drone eggs right from the start and l wondered how common it was.

 

[Peter Vanstone]

I

If she did I suspect people might notice queens going missing relatively regularly. Perhaps even more so those who clip wings.

James

I think she stays inside and gets looked after.does she go out to remate.or a second marriage in the blue azure as the poet puts it,that is commented on some times,who knows,l am off to feed bees on the west side did have lots of food but ate them selves out of house and home,nearer Tiverton plenty of food,think they missed some of the minor flows,did well in feb and early March.

 

[Anduril]

I don’t think mated or unmated matters,say my drones were laid 20 April.six weeks back from that my queen was a pretty young thing no drones about and bad weather,she was infertile,she left the hive with a fair swarm,or as a barren queen she left a hive as a hunger swarm,or she was ejected from a working hive.lts just that after 45 years and a considerable number of swarms l’v never seen a queen lay drone eggs right from the start and l wondered how common it was.

As @Ian123 when a virgin fails to mate after swarming. Mated queens shouldn't swarm if they cannot get viable queen cells produced. Hunger swarms shouldn't be a thing, unless it is beekeeper error. Another aspect would be the cannibalism of larvae due to the lack of protein and then the demise of the colony.

 

[Peter Vanstone]

There was a beekeeper on Anglesey who swore that somebody was stealing her queens in the night

There were two spinster beekeepers near here who thought the sbi’s took them,maybe the same ladies who on being asked by the SBI,did you pour the petrol in last night levelled the shot gun at him and said,you are not killing our bees.He rang the office for instructions,they said for goodness sake come back to the office,there comments were a bit stronger,lt can get a bit wild up on Exmoor,.

 

[Anduril]

does she go out to remate.

No

 

[StephenT]

Reunited a nuc with the main hive after doing the two week Pete Little swarm control method. Stuck another super of foundation on as well as the first is all drawn and feels pretty full. This is at an out apiary and doing the same to two hives in our garden at the weekend. Hoping to get them all de-swarmy before the main flow

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

There was a beekeeper on Anglesey who swore that somebody was stealing her queens in the night

I wonder what happened to the honey pantechnicon?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The thinking must be that laying workers must be very young

I doubt the person who dreamt that up did much thinking at all, if a colony develops laying workers, it's after a long period of queenlessness - so no 'young' workers present.
Anyway, workers of all ages can become layers.

 

[Erichalfbee]

There were two spinster beekeepers near here who thought the sbi’s took them,maybe the same ladies who on being asked by the SBI,did you pour the petrol in last night levelled the shot gun at him and said,you are not killing our bees.He rang the office for instructions,they said for goodness sake come back to the office,there comments were a bit stronger,lt can get a bit wild up on Exmoor,.

Do you know you remind me of somebody I knew from Cornwall who had a leg missing. He could Hoppit.

 

[Peter Vanstone]

Do you know you remind me of somebody I knew from Cornwall who had a leg missing. He could Hoppit.

Nothing to do with me it was fact.

 

[Anduril]

lts just that after 45 years

Also you said you looked through 40 hives in a day at one time.
Where do you think your knowledge level should be?

 

[Peter Vanstone]

Also you said you looked through 40 hives in a day at one time.
Where do you think your knowledge level should be?

This has nothing to do with knowledge.we are heading into mind games do you remember the original question,how often does a hive in this condition happen,it’s not knowledge just a question.

 

[Anduril]

This has nothing to do with knowledge.we are heading into mind games do you remember the original question,how often does a hive in this condition happen,it’s not knowledge just a question.

Which has been answered.