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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10613  by Patrick
 21 Apr 2021, 09:46
Hi JoJo

Re your two hives. They shouldnow be bringing in some nectar so check for cells full of liquid. If so, I would be taking off supers of syrup now if they were still on and putting in empties. It’s also possible all income is being turned into brood.

Not quite sure what’s going on with your Farmers hive. Are there eggs and open brood to be seen there? In other words, do you still have a queen present? Do you know how old the sealed cells are? If they have not emerged in another week I would open it up to see if either it is vacant and the virgin has already emerged and they have recapped the cell or the pupa has perished.

Frankly I am always suspicious of assuming supercedure in April, May and June when seeing queen cells.

I don’t think I would be undertaking a shook swarm and requeening at the same time, that is a lot going on there. If you are not sure you have a laying queen present then probably shelve the shook swarm for the time being. The comb and frames may not be the best but they will do whilst you get a clear idea of what’s going on?
 #10614  by JoJo36
 21 Apr 2021, 10:44
Hi Patrick

Firstly, thanks for your prompt response.

Re the two hives: hive 1 :

Put an empty super a couple of weeks ago with a couple of frames of sealed syrup as not much in brood area. There is no nectar as far as I could see in brood area yesterday but they had added some to a couple of otherwise empty frames and still had some left in the frames of syrup. Would you replace the frames of syrup with drawn empty ones and hope the little they have brought in will be enough??!!

Hive two:

Similar but had some (a little) of food on some brood frames but less than last week. I placed a super of undrawn comb (with again a couple of frames of syrup as I didn't want them to starve)and put a feeder on with light syrup for them to drawn out empty frames as I don't have loads spare! They have drawn out about 6/7 and I've put feeder back on. Thinking maybe time to take off feeder and just leave the empty drawn combs in??!!

Farmers hive: No eggs or open brood, definitely think the queen is dead/gone and one of the uncapped queen cups is now gone??!! The other that was sealed last week, was still sealed (6 days after finding) so thinking maybe not viable??!!
My wondering mind has thought of cutting out sealed QC and placing in new brood box after shaking in all bees from old one underneath and also placing a frame of eggs for extra luck in getting a new queen??!!
 #10615  by JoJo36
 21 Apr 2021, 11:16
Forgot to mention that farmers hive has a feeder on and a new brood box to draw out brood frames which they more or less have done.
 #10616  by JoJo36
 21 Apr 2021, 13:58
Hi Again Patrick and thanks for your advice.

Re Hive 1 Took out one of the sugar syrup frames in super above brood (had put in two but one almost gone) and replaced by empty drawn comb. Others were empty frames and a few had nectar in so fingers crossed all good!

Hive 2 There was nectar in several of the recently drawn combs I had put in so have taken off feeder and left just empty frames now mostly all drawn.

Loads of bees flying and all seem good tempered at the moment!!
 #10617  by Patrick
 21 Apr 2021, 15:00
Hi

Thanks for the extra detail. Sounds like hive 1 and 2 have a positive flow of nectar going in, which is excellent. A frame or two of syrup is not an issue as long as you mark it and don’t end up extracting it by mistake but at this stage removal should be fine. If the weather turns rubbish just keep an eye out.

The farmers hive sounds queenless, whether by swarming or something else. I would personally leave be if they only have one queen cell left. If that queen cell is occupied and viable then you need it to requeen that hive. If it is not viable, you may still need to do the frame of eggs trick and putting the cell in another box would just waste those bees.
 #10618  by JoJo36
 21 Apr 2021, 15:20
Hi Patrick

It's certainly reassuring to hear a couple of hives sound okay, thanks for that.

Re farmers hive, I am mumbling on so I have probably confused everyone including myself! If the queen cell is viable then why would I need to requeen the hive?
I was thinking of leaving a bit longer anyway just as you say "just in case"??!!

If by next week the queen cell is still there and not viable I was thinking of putting a frame of brood, eggs and larvae in the new clean brood box above and shake the bees from bottom box into this??!! I have a feeder on this one as I was doing a bailey comb change and the bees have drawn most of the frames now.
 #10636  by JoJo36
 23 Apr 2021, 05:40
Hi Patrick

Ignore last post as I read it wrong, you did say I would need it not that I needed to requiem hive anyway!

Sorry it was early:)