What have you done today bee-related?

[Chrisbarlow]

Started making up pollen substitute for non production colonies.

[Japey Edge]

Queen arrived today by post. Wife looking after her until I get back around 4:30pm to introduce her to the queenless nuc I made up on Sunday.

Nervy times. Nervy times....

[Chrisbarlow]

Queen arrived today by post. Wife looking after her until I get back around 4:30pm to introduce her to the queenless nuc I made up on Sunday.

Nervy times. Nervy times....

May the bees God's be kind

You could also use a bit of air freshener to help as well.

[Japey Edge]

Queen arrived today by post. Wife looking after her until I get back around 4:30pm to introduce her to the queenless nuc I made up on Sunday.

Nervy times. Nervy times....

May the bees God's be kind

You could also use a bit of air freshener to help as well.

What do you mean? Put her into the hive in her cage and spray the box with a little air freshener? Or is this for when I do the newspaper unite with the bigger hive?

[NigelP]

No, I;m sure Chris is referring to when you suspend queen between frames in her cage.
Neat idea but no idea if it helps with queen introduction. It will confuse their sense of smell but not whether they will accept different queen pheromones. But if mainly nurse bees in Nuc you should be fine.
Also after three days break the tab over fondant and allow bees to release her, check shes is out of cage after 48 hours (no inspection, just remove cage)....and sit back and bite fingernails for another 4-5 days.
I use to release queen directly onto frame of bees and check they reacted okay to her, but having had one fly off and one dissapear into the bowels of the hive I think this way is a little safer.

Oh and run a drop of water (literally a drop) over the cage mesh as they can be a little dehydrated after a long journey.

[Japey Edge]

Cheers Nigel

I appreciate the recap. Although we discussed this last week I feel the closer I get to doing all this the less confident I am

Also, I think for feeding them I'll have to pour some syrup directly into an empty drawn comb as I do not have a feeder small enough to stick on that wooden nuc (or anything to make an eke from).

Yep, so when I get in I'll check she's OK, give her a little drop of water, then pick out my finest cocktail stick to suspend her cage between two frames. Will make sure feed is sorted first so I'm not bothering them loads.
As an alternative to pouring syrup in their comb - would giving them a frame of stores from another colony in the apiary be OK?

[Chrisbarlow]

I make up a small nuc of bees. (3-4frames), 1 frame of sealed bees plus 1 frame of stores as a minimum. I leave em 4-6 days, queenless. when I am ready for inserting the queen, I open em up and give em a squirt of air freshner. stick the cage in. then 24hours I go back in and give em another squirt and without removing the frame, pull the cover plastic off but leave the main peace inside. I tend to get a 9 -10 out 10 acceptance. there is no 100% method but there seems to be many ways to sccessfully fail.

[AdamD]

It's always been reported that it's easier to replace like with like, so for me, if I am replacing my own queens with my own, then chances are good. Also if the queen is in lay, then it's also better, so again for me, I can whip a queen out and put her in a new box in a minute. Recently I have pulled queens out and replaced them an hour or so later with a caged queen and fondant over the exit hole and they have been accepted. I have also tried introducing to queenless colonies just with smoke and no cage at all and it's always worked. However some liquid feed is said to be beneficial and if the nuc has lost it's flyers and it definitely has no queencells, then chances are pretty good.

Queens can have their feet nibbled, so cages that can go between two frames hard up against the top and bottom of the cage that help protect the queen are better than a butler cage which is open to all sides and maker her vulnerable.

[Japey Edge]

Interesting Chris - I had seen a few methods online but not that one.

On Sunday I made the nuc up with two frames of sealed brood, two frames of stores and just one drawn old comb to fill the space. I have no dummy boards or insulation so not ideal..
Checked them today and still plenty of stores. Took down around 7 emergency queen cups.
Popped a cocktail stick through a lug on the queen cage and put her between two frames. Haven't removed any plastic caps or anything. Didn't stick around to see what happened.

I also gave feed to colony 1 and nuc 3. Colony 4 needs a different crown board before I can stick them some feed on. They're making do with a rubble sack for now... Please don't ask

Now I re-read Nigel's advice and see how I did

[Japey Edge]

Also, looking through the cage she's a small girl.. Is that an indicator of anything?