what's best when q-

[Nuc]

Hi folks. I can hardly believe my bees and me are in trouble and needing advice again. Feeling totally inadequate and wondering if i should give up but need to get the bees sorted. However hopefully some of you kind people can give me some advice.
Info. 2 colonies, different but both local Q's both clipped. Both with supers but filling up everything with nectar faster than they are drawing new wax.
Week ago last monday; "thistle" colony started making Q cells. Should have AS'ed them but hadn't made up enough equipment so removed all cells.
"Clover" colony no Q cells but laying Q.
Last sunday; both colonies Q cells, some capped, no Q's, no eggs. Right or wrong (prob wrong) removed all cells except 1 nice capped cell in each hive.
Wednesday; no Q's, no eggs, no unsealed brood, few Q cells which i destroyed leaving previous capped cell in each.
Now feeling nervous about waiting for Q to hatch and mate . Is it possible to make a nuc with only a bit of sealed brood/no brood and introduce a mated (bought) Q as a contingency plan or is the die now cast ?
Hope you can follow all that, Thanks in advance, Nuc.

 

[susbees]

Wait and see...check whether the capped cells have hatched ten days after you first saw them. Just that frame mind (marked with a drawing pin)...and open it to make sure it isn't resealed. Then report back...

 

[sherwood]

You should of course not have kept the sealed cell, you dont know whats in there if anything. You should have kept an unsealed Qc in which you could see a healthy lava to late now hope the cell you have left is alright.

 

[sherwood]

Yes to the second part of your question, it would be possible to do this provided you take a enough nurse bees (ie non flying bees from the brood box) with the brood. The flying bees will return to the original site. You will need to include some stores as well.

If you had the nucleus box to begin with you could have done a split and put a QC in both boxs.

 

[For want of a better word]

Is there not another friendly beekeeper local to you who could give you a frame of eggs from one of his hives?
Much better to source your bees locally.
I once had a similar problem with 2 apparent queenless hives, I manged to lay my hands on a single frame of eggs and brood. This was cut diagonally from corner to corner and one half fixed in a new frame, so both hives had a half frame.
I had to leave them to it for 23 days as had family holiday booked.
When I returned both hives were thriving and even managed to super off some honey.
The hives owner was somewhat perplexed when he returned from his vacation ( Posh people take vacations that usually last for a couple of months) when he could not find his special liberally coated with Tipex queens and his bees were definitely a bit lighter in colour

 

[tonybloke]

You should of course not have kept the sealed cell, you dont know whats in there if anything. You should have kept an unsealed Qc in which you could see a healthy lava to late now hope the cell you have left is alright.

it's easy to forget that we all made mistakes in our early years of beekeeping, isn't it??

Wait and see...check whether the capped cells have hatched ten days after you first saw them. Just that frame mind (marked with a drawing pin)...and open it to make sure it isn't resealed. Then report back...

good call, susbees

 

[Bucks_Boy]

One thing bees teach us is Patience.

Each year in general I try to remove Q to a nuc and let hive requeen -- if requeen successfuly, sell nuc, if not, mate Nuc back to Hive.
Good Queens I leave 2 Q cells and BEFORE hatching take a second nuc off with the second Q cell
Poor queens have all q cells knocked back and a week later a queenright nuc mated to it .
Most queens are clipped so if I do make an error, I take a nuc off anyway to reduce some of the bee volume and as insurance.

Means that every year I end up with a couple of apiaries looking like the Bee equivalent of a travellers camp with hives and nuc boxes everywhere, the large proportion are in the 4-5 week phase of waiting to go Q-right.

There is no other way than to wait the time - The first few seasons I became a little stressed - nowdays, providing there is some good weather, you just need to have faith in the reproduction urge.

Every year I get at least one Drone-laying queen, but thats why you need 2 hives minimum as the chances of 2 drone layers is much smaller.

The good news is that with strong hives and a virgin queen there are less and less brood to look after so more foragers/honey processors --- I have one huge hive that I removed the queen 3 weeks ago when on Double Brood --- now Double brood + 4 supers heaving with nectar, 2 of which were foundation.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Nuc, As you had clipped queens you have the bees back and you have one queencell per colony which, on my view, is all you can do. Most queens get mated Ok , it's just an anxious time as Bucks Boy has stated.

Tonybloke will testify that my apiary looks a little like a travellers camp too!
(Wife has less polite comments about it!).

 

[Nuc]

Thanks everyone for the advice. For sure i am making mistakes but learning from the experience all the time. I'll keep my fingers crossed and look into getting some eggs from somewhere as well.
Thanks again, Nuc.