- Joined
- Nov 9, 2018
- Messages
- 912
- Reaction score
- 825
- Location
- Rainham, Medway (North Kent) UK
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 48 plus 19 managed for another
I can't get my head round the arithmetic. It takes c. 4.5 days for a queen cell to be sealed / capped. A just-started queen cell will be sealed 2.5 days before you next open the hive, if you inspect every seven days. And that presumes that you can spot a new queen cell, less than a day old. If you miss these, queen cells might have been sealed 3-4 days before you return.
And yet 7-day inspections do seem to work.
I was taught that a swarm is likely to depart as soon as the first queen cell is sealed. That may or may not be true. Even allowing for weather delaying swarming, it seems to me that swarms might not leave till a cell has been sealed for at least a couple of days.
If that's not the case, what is the rationale behind 7-day inspections?
I asked someone about this recently. I didn't get the answer i was looking for but I have the distinct impression that I'm missing something obvious. It won't be the first time.
And yet 7-day inspections do seem to work.
I was taught that a swarm is likely to depart as soon as the first queen cell is sealed. That may or may not be true. Even allowing for weather delaying swarming, it seems to me that swarms might not leave till a cell has been sealed for at least a couple of days.
If that's not the case, what is the rationale behind 7-day inspections?
I asked someone about this recently. I didn't get the answer i was looking for but I have the distinct impression that I'm missing something obvious. It won't be the first time.