Going to graft some cups tomorrow as I now know why they failed first time, queenless hive was in fact not queenless, kicked her into laying though. Need some new queens for potential new apiaries.Patrick wrote: ↑16 Apr 2020, 20:04Good on you for giving it a go stechad, nothing to lose and plenty to gain even if it is to discover what does or doesn’t work for you.
I work on the principle there is no point in rearing queens when there are no drones to mate them at the end of the process and when I am around to do things. So when I am seeing drones appearing it is reasonable to assume there should be plenty two to three weeks hence.
Round here in Somerset that means I will start preparing things this weekend and hopefully have some cells emerging first week May.
I see you are in the Northwest so others more local to you on here can give you a more specific steer - I suspect they may say you’ve got a couple or so weeks in hand yet.