Kind of how short? Depends how carefully they are handled.
If you can keep them warm & not shake them up a a few hours.
You can even keep them in an incubator (at optimum temp) till they hatch, many queen rearers do.
Definitely not something you can post to Northern Ireland though.
Tavascarow
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It's not just your bees!
To cut a long and sorry story short, a couple of months ago we had 3 good hives, laying queens, brood, eggs...one hive swarmed so then there were 4, albeit 2 rather small. Now, we have THREE queenless colonies and one queen laying very few eggs.  And back when one of the (now queenless)colonies was strong and producing multiple queen cells, NINE were removed. Frustrating or what.
OH's mentor took the queen cells so we will prob be able to re-queen, but it's getting quite late in the season.
This is OH's 3rd season & he sometimes feels he's no closer to knowing what to do than he was before he started  |
Over recent years I've read a lot about queens failing to mate & older queens failing.
I think the causes are multiple.
The weather has in many instances played a part, wet summers aren't best for mating flights.
Not enough drones available through drone comb removal (varroa control), all worker foundation in brood boxes & fewer feral colonies in the wild.
Over zealous swarm control.
Also it's proven now that neonicotinoids affect the laying ability of mated queens.
My thoughts are keep bees that are used to local conditions.
Mongrels descended from feral survival stock are more likely to cope with our wet summers.
Let your bees produce as many drones as they want, not you want.
By letting them build natural comb, not foundation dictated, & no drone brood removal.
Let them swarm naturally or by artificial swarming at the optimum time instead of trying to stop them.
Instead of destroying queen cells divide them up into smaller nuclei to increase your chances of mated queens.
You can always recombine them later, queenless to queenright.
As to neonics the only answer is to keep your bees in an area where they aren't predominant & join the ever increasing lobby to get them banned.
Sally Too
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So I'm meeting my friend this afternoon. His apiary is only a mile from my sister's place where our two queenless Nationals are located, and about 8 miles from our home where the TB hive and the donated Nuc are located.
We helped this friend split his hive earlier this year. It was well full and the queen was still in residence despite the presence of a large capped queen cell! So I'm hoping these bees are less swarmy than our old stock were.
I'm being given a frame of brood with eggs present. My plan is to transport it in our Nuc (pre-warmed with a hot water bottle - not overly hot) to my sister's. There I will cut two sections out of it (with eggs) and hang each using wire into the top of a frame in the heart of each brood box. Obviously I'll cut a corresponding space out of the resident frame....
Drive home - and repeat for TB and Nuc at home.
Then close up and leave. Will organise feed in the next day or two afterwards.
My one worry with this plan is that the existing bees will be getting old now and may not live long enough to get their queen going......
What do the beeks here think?
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Tavascarow
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I should have also added that some of the so called safe varroa treatments used by beekeepers can also affect queens laying ability.
Much I've written above goes against conventional teaching. But nature is by it's nature unpredictable, & as such I believe we shouldn't be working by the book & controlling nature but working with it as our species has done up to the industrial age.
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Tavascarow
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So I'm meeting my friend this afternoon. His apiary is only a mile from my sister's place where our two queenless Nationals are located, and about 8 miles from our home where the TB hive and the donated Nuc are located.
We helped this friend split his hive earlier this year. It was well full and the queen was still in residence despite the presence of a large capped queen cell! So I'm hoping these bees are less swarmy than our old stock were.
I'm being given a frame of brood with eggs present. My plan is to transport it in our Nuc (pre-warmed with a hot water bottle - not overly hot) to my sister's. There I will cut two sections out of it (with eggs) and hang each using wire into the top of a frame in the heart of each brood box. Obviously I'll cut a corresponding space out of the resident frame....
Drive home - and repeat for TB and Nuc at home.
Then close up and leave. Will organise feed in the next day or two afterwards.
My one worry with this plan is that the existing bees will be getting old now and may not live long enough to get their queen going......
What do the beeks here think? |
As long as the eggs are kept warm it should work.
Good luck.
joanne
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So I'm meeting my friend this afternoon. His apiary is only a mile from my sister's place where our two queenless Nationals are located, and about 8 miles from our home where the TB hive and the donated Nuc are located.
We helped this friend split his hive earlier this year. It was well full and the queen was still in residence despite the presence of a large capped queen cell! So I'm hoping these bees are less swarmy than our old stock were.
I'm being given a frame of brood with eggs present. My plan is to transport it in our Nuc (pre-warmed with a hot water bottle - not overly hot) to my sister's. There I will cut two sections out of it (with eggs) and hang each using wire into the top of a frame in the heart of each brood box. Obviously I'll cut a corresponding space out of the resident frame....
Drive home - and repeat for TB and Nuc at home.
Then close up and leave. Will organise feed in the next day or two afterwards.
My one worry with this plan is that the existing bees will be getting old now and may not live long enough to get their queen going......
What do the beeks here think? |
The queen being in residence despite a sealed queen cell sounds like a failing queen and supersedure - I've got the same thing in my colony although I have split and put her in a nuc - I'm hoping to check tonight and check whats going on
Midland Spinner
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Could you put a couple of frames of your own bees into the nuc to look after the eggs on the way home? (Rather than a hotwater bottle)
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Sally Too
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Ah well.... friend has no eggs or brood either!
However went to the Queen rearing group meeting with the apodea and it was all fascinating....
So apodea is left up there with bees in it and as there weren't quite enough queens for tonight, it will get a queen cell tomorrow evening when more will be ready.
Tomorrow night they will also be doing a session on how to graft the eggs into the grafting cups..... However I'm torn in two directions as I usually go to the dog agility training on a Tues night and had to miss last week too......
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mochasidamo
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However I'm torn in two directions as I usually go to the dog agility training on a Tues night and had to miss last week too...... |
Can the dog make honey? Easy decision... 
Eggs don't need warmth for transport on an average day. Larvae need a bit of humidity (wrap in a slightly damp tea towel).
Going to do some grafting here tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed re the daft weather (although apiary mating fine here as plenty native-type drones). Got quite a few Shropshire mutt stocks to requeen end of July (swarms mostly) so best get going.
Sally Too
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However I'm torn in two directions as I usually go to the dog agility training on a Tues night and had to miss last week too...... |
Can the dog make honey? Easy decision...
Your right of course.... and I am really interested in all this! And all the folk last night were being so generous with their time and knowledge.
Yup... decision made - this is an opportunity not to be missed.
(Sorry Patsy (my terrier) and Louise (my trainer) you're on your own again tonight!)
gythagirl
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Well: similar story here, mentor's apiary was in disarray too, several queenlees hives, few queen cells. OH has brought back some eggs for one hive & a queen cell for another & reckons it's up to the bees now. Very dispiriting.
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yummersetter
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Why don't you get your OH to call mine, Gythagirl? He may be able to help. pm me for number if you've not got it.
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mochasidamo
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Well: similar story here, mentor's apiary was in disarray too, several queenlees hives, few queen cells. OH has brought back some eggs for one hive & a queen cell for another & reckons it's up to the bees now. Very dispiriting. |
To an extent the line between disarray and not is partly management (made much harder this year) and patly down to number of hives. If we get one or two go DLQ then it's easily fixed...if you only have one or three hives it's much harder. I have a mentee who had five hives last week...only one with a queen (now marked) and presumably another in the prime I pulled 25 feet down a hawthorn for her too. Other three no good at all.
I should have kept quiet about grafting today...it's rained, poured and is now fuggy and horrid. Wonderful. Not
Sally Too
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Here it was a mild and muggy night. I went to the grafting evening, and it was fascinating! Really enjoyed it.
More ready to hatch queen cells were placed in waiting apideas and I was able to do my own one.
There were two extra queen cells ready and so I brought them home. One is in the nuc with the wingless queen (now deceased) and one in the queenless topbar hive.
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Sally Too
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So I've been dreaming Queen rearing all night... and am dying to try it all for myself now. 
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