eeek - Queen Cells

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eeek - Queen Cells
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wizz

Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 561

Posted: Tue May 06, 08 9:04 pm Post subject:
Wow that is seriously impressive... well done you. I'm not surprised you were worried!! (our bee keeping efforts were rather aborted when our hive lost its' bees fairly mysteriously about this time last year after we thought they'd got through their first winter OK (?reason ?empty hive syndrome) So far we haven't replaced them - but hope to at some stage sooner or later!)

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Tue May 06, 08 10:53 pm Post subject:

Bit late but this is what I would have done.
Taken the frames with the queen cells after brushing the bees off & place in a separate brood box along with any frames with eggs & young brood also minus bees & a couple of frames of pollen/honey.
Replace the frames in the original brood (With all the bees) with empty comb or foundation.
Put a queen excluder over the original brood & place the new brood box on top.
The young nurse bees will move up to tend the brood & the new queens when they emerge.
Next day move the top box to a new site & leave the old queen with all the foraging bees on the old site.
If the new queens haven't emerged you could subdivide into two or three nucs but you will need to feed them as all the foragers are still with the old queen.
This way the main gathering force is still on the old site & should be able to pull a crop if the weather permits & you have 1,2 or 3 new nucs that you can feed up & increase for next year.
If you haven't read it I thoroughly recommend Snelgrove's 'Swarming its control & prevention'.
Its the most important book in my beekeeping library.

Citrine

Joined: 30 Apr 2008
Posts: 51
Location: Kent

Posted: Wed May 07, 08 7:10 am Post subject:
Well done Jo!! had my first lesson last night, and so I can only imagine how you felt - but well done!!! Keep going, you sound like you're doing remarkably well!!!

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Wed May 07, 08 8:04 am Post subject:

TAVASCAROW wrote:

I wanted to use a Snelgrove board this year but the situation overtook me - I really didn't expect to be having to deal with a potential swarm this early in May - Especially in Lancashire

As I would not be around today and tomorrow - I needed a solution that wouldn't need any intervention over the next couple of days - It seems to have worked - Time will tell

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Wed May 07, 08 8:09 am Post subject:

jocorless wrote:

Ours swarmed on May 1st last year - hence I'm getting yippy.

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:44 pm Post subject:

Well I've had a very interesting morning - Linda and Richard came this morning to check out what I had done and sort out the main colony

We looked at Brigid -The original Queen - she was laying beautifully and the brood pattern was amazing to see - There were no flying bee's and all the nurse bee's had their heads in the stores stuffing themselves with honey so we could see exactly what was going on

As she is so prolific we decided to move her up from the Nuc into a brood box - I would have done that on Tuesday but we didn't have any more stands made (OH was planning on making me a couple this weekend! ) - R + L had brought me a spare one of theirs - so we moved her into her new home and closed up the entrance so it only had a small opening although there were an awful lot of bees in the air

After it had calmed down a bit - we went into Athena - the original colony - found approximately 20 or so Queen cells - the really large one was now sealed and so were 3 more - the rest were still open and they were being formed from worker cells that had been laid probably Monday or Tuesday

We then decided to break down the big colony into a single brood box and another Nuc - putting some of the undrawn out foundation in the top brood box into Brigid to give her some more room, however on opening Brigid again we found that all the bees has disappeared and we couldn't find her, luckily after panicking for about 5 minutes, Linda spotted her on the grass near her foot and we returned her to the hive along with some more nurse bee's and this time sealed up the entrance so they couldn't get out at all for a couple of days..

The frame with the big sealed queen cell went into the Nuc (Artemis) along with another 2 frames of brood and 2 frames of stores - the now depleted main colony was put back together and the super put back on top

I'm so glad that they came and helped me - If I'd been doing on my own I'd have never spotted the Queen in the grass - I'm also really really glad I've got some very gentle bee's - We were in there for nearly 2 hours and none of us received a single sting and we used very little smoke

So the next plan is on Tuesday to go back into Athena and decide which queen cells we want to keep and which are going to go to Linda and Richard for raising in Apideas and Nuc's - Its very exciting all this beekeeping - I thought it was supposed to be a gentle hobby

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:46 pm Post subject:
Wow! Twenty queen cells! Is that normal?

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:48 pm Post subject:
Wow, that sounds like a fantastic session. Hopefully going to look at ours tomorrow.

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:50 pm Post subject:
I think I'm going to get my hive next week. Sounds like I might need to be ready!

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:52 pm Post subject:
Is it a full hive, Jamanda? Or a nuc?

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:53 pm Post subject:

Chez wrote:

Is it a full hive, Jamanda? Or a nuc?

I've a hive on order from the apiary supplies, and they will supply a nuc when they have them ready to go.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:55 pm Post subject:
You'll probably be alright then, if you give them enough space - which was what caused our 5-swarms-in-six-weeks problem last year

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:58 pm Post subject:

Chez wrote:

You'll probably be alright then, if you give them enough space - which was what caused our 5-swarms-in-six-weeks problem last year

Did you check for queen cells? or was that too much given all the other stuff you had going on then?

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 3:59 pm Post subject:
It was all too much last year - I was still at the 'vomiting on my shoes' stage if I walked up to the garden. Much less sick this time - hoping to have a concerted effort with Mochyn and Arvo tomorrow, with Mochyn's Old Chap and Leo assisting .

joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Fri May 09, 08 4:13 pm Post subject:

Jamanda wrote:

Wow! Twenty queen cells! Is that normal?

No idea

- there wasn't that many the other day - I can assure you otherwise I would have been in full panic mode but they obviously started building up everything that they could - Some were on Drone brood which we destroyed and some were in funny places or just didn't look quite right which we also destroyed but there are about 10 left that were OK

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