JCBrum
Drone Bee
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2009
- Messages
- 1,054
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Birmingham UK
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 8 ish
My number 2 hive went queenless last week while I was away at the Royal Show.
It had swarmed last month, and I had managed to catch the swarm and put it into a different empty hive.
A mentor and I went through the hive two weeks ago and it appeared to have got going again with a new queen although we didn't see her. We both thought it was all ok with a reasonable amount of bees and some brood considering the situation, and unlikely to swarm while I was away. -- wrong !!
Last Monday (2 days ago) I looked through it. No queen, no brood, and about a dozen small q cells amongst the frames, on the sides, not on the bottom, some capped and some open.
Oh dear, I thought.
I was well peed off. I didn't like the look of any of the q cells, and felt that the time taken to raise a good queen would miss the honey flows and leave me with an unproductive hive till next season.
What I need I thought was a vigourous mated queen to get 'em going again asap.
So - who ya gonna call ??
After phoning around a bit with no luck, and turning down nucs at £100 - £150, I decided to screw up my courage and 'phone -- *******s !!! (mikethebee)
It was late afternoon and the landline said mikethebee was about somewhere, - try his mobile.
He answered, - whadyawant ? I'm busy with my hands full.
I explained and said I wanted one mated queen asap. He said he had about 20 left but they were selling fast. Bring him some money straightaway.
I explained I had commitments and couldn't get there till Thursday morning, but would he save me one.
He said he would try, but phone first to check, and advised me to dump the commitments and bring the money tomorrow (tues). It's about 100 miles round trip, and I said I'd be there thursday, please save me one.
During Monday evening I changed my mind, and decided to visit Easy Bees on Tuesday morning. I telephoned about 8am and left a message to say I was no my way to pick up a queen and would be there about 9:30am.
As it happened I didn't get there till 9:50 and couldn't get into the yard because of a lorry and some other vehicles which were blocking it all up. I couldn't find Mike and his staff said he's over at the house, try there.
I found him in his home-office, counting big wads of money, and finishing a bacon sandwich. I explained I had taken his advice to drive there straight away and collect my queen and had left a recorded message earlier that morning.
"You're too late" he said. The last bloke just took all the queens, and now we've got this lorry to get loaded, - he's got a long way to go. I'll see what I can do but you'll have to wait. He's a good customer and is selling tons of my bees.
I waited. They loaded 16 pallets of 20 nucs per pallet, onto the truck, and some other boxes as well.
Mike left the lads to finish, and came back to me. He said he didn't have much left that day but he might be able to let me have one of his own nucs from his "garden", but it would be home-bred not imported, and they fetched a good price he said.
I explained I only wanted a queen really but made him an offer for the nuc based on what it was worth to me, to combine them with my bees.
He laughed and said I did not have an accurate understanding of his pricing structure, or more colourful words to that effect.
I explained that I had acted on his advice in good faith, and felt I had a wasted and expensive journey. He said life's tough.
After some more friendly witty banter, we decide the only way to bridge the substantial financial difference between us was to "toss" for it.
Mike got out a shiny pound coin (he said it was his last one) and threw it in the air. He caught it and put it covered on the back of his hand. I called "heads". I won. He said "b*gger" !
So we watched as the lorry pulled out of the yard and I thought he's got the queen I was going to have. It said MacDonald, Kinross, on the door. I thought that's too far to go to buy it back. I wonder if this "home bred" stuff is as good as the imports are reputed to be.
JC.
It had swarmed last month, and I had managed to catch the swarm and put it into a different empty hive.
A mentor and I went through the hive two weeks ago and it appeared to have got going again with a new queen although we didn't see her. We both thought it was all ok with a reasonable amount of bees and some brood considering the situation, and unlikely to swarm while I was away. -- wrong !!
Last Monday (2 days ago) I looked through it. No queen, no brood, and about a dozen small q cells amongst the frames, on the sides, not on the bottom, some capped and some open.
Oh dear, I thought.
I was well peed off. I didn't like the look of any of the q cells, and felt that the time taken to raise a good queen would miss the honey flows and leave me with an unproductive hive till next season.
What I need I thought was a vigourous mated queen to get 'em going again asap.
So - who ya gonna call ??
After phoning around a bit with no luck, and turning down nucs at £100 - £150, I decided to screw up my courage and 'phone -- *******s !!! (mikethebee)
It was late afternoon and the landline said mikethebee was about somewhere, - try his mobile.
He answered, - whadyawant ? I'm busy with my hands full.
I explained and said I wanted one mated queen asap. He said he had about 20 left but they were selling fast. Bring him some money straightaway.
I explained I had commitments and couldn't get there till Thursday morning, but would he save me one.
He said he would try, but phone first to check, and advised me to dump the commitments and bring the money tomorrow (tues). It's about 100 miles round trip, and I said I'd be there thursday, please save me one.
During Monday evening I changed my mind, and decided to visit Easy Bees on Tuesday morning. I telephoned about 8am and left a message to say I was no my way to pick up a queen and would be there about 9:30am.
As it happened I didn't get there till 9:50 and couldn't get into the yard because of a lorry and some other vehicles which were blocking it all up. I couldn't find Mike and his staff said he's over at the house, try there.
I found him in his home-office, counting big wads of money, and finishing a bacon sandwich. I explained I had taken his advice to drive there straight away and collect my queen and had left a recorded message earlier that morning.
"You're too late" he said. The last bloke just took all the queens, and now we've got this lorry to get loaded, - he's got a long way to go. I'll see what I can do but you'll have to wait. He's a good customer and is selling tons of my bees.
I waited. They loaded 16 pallets of 20 nucs per pallet, onto the truck, and some other boxes as well.
Mike left the lads to finish, and came back to me. He said he didn't have much left that day but he might be able to let me have one of his own nucs from his "garden", but it would be home-bred not imported, and they fetched a good price he said.
I explained I only wanted a queen really but made him an offer for the nuc based on what it was worth to me, to combine them with my bees.
He laughed and said I did not have an accurate understanding of his pricing structure, or more colourful words to that effect.
I explained that I had acted on his advice in good faith, and felt I had a wasted and expensive journey. He said life's tough.
After some more friendly witty banter, we decide the only way to bridge the substantial financial difference between us was to "toss" for it.
Mike got out a shiny pound coin (he said it was his last one) and threw it in the air. He caught it and put it covered on the back of his hand. I called "heads". I won. He said "b*gger" !
So we watched as the lorry pulled out of the yard and I thought he's got the queen I was going to have. It said MacDonald, Kinross, on the door. I thought that's too far to go to buy it back. I wonder if this "home bred" stuff is as good as the imports are reputed to be.
JC.
