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  • FAO Nigel.. Snelgrove 2 ..

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #11254  by JoJo36
 18 Jun 2021, 05:00
Yours may be okay, my first snelgrove 2 adapted version worked perfectly its just this one but it was jam packed to be honest! I also thought of putting an empty super over brood with undrawn comb going super and a half as double brood really too heavy I think???!!!!........
I'll try this method again if they keep building swarm cells I think or let them replace queen, take this one away in nuc and swap her with one of my other queens that is slow???!!! You never know whether you are doing the right thing, I guess by guessing sometimes you eventually find something that works for you.:)
 #11256  by NigelP
 18 Jun 2021, 08:52
Just had similar on the two I united after 7 days then had to snelgrove again after they started drawing queen cells again. Now in both cases they didn't tear down the queen cells in top box .......however queens seem to have disappeared in both. I may have lost them in a failed swarm (both queens were clipped). Given this hot weather and this weird season who knows exactly what is going on.
Nothing else for it so I united boxes again, reduced queen cells down to 1, knowing I will have missed one somewhere else and let them get on with it. Both of these colonies are huge....
 #11257  by JoJo36
 18 Jun 2021, 10:26
Been thinking of taking off the empty brood box(with 1 frame brood ) rest foundation and replacing with a super of foundation so I would have brood and a half (double brood too heavy for me) the frame of brood transferring to my hive 3 (farmers hive) queen laying but very slow to build up, may give them a boost??!!
I feel that its a game of juggling at the moment and if I do need to snelgrove again I'm going to try side entrance first and see if they destroy cells that way as I'm sure a lot of the foragers flew into the top brood box when I had them same entrance!
Decisions decisions..............
 #11271  by JoJo36
 21 Jun 2021, 06:53
So now my hive 2 is creating queen cells again!
I've snelgroved once more to see if it works this time and hopefully at least it will stop swarming in the meantime??!!
Hive 1 is now on brood and a half and I've taken a couple of sealed brood frames to deplete it a little and hopefully may stop future qc's??!! I've passed these to my weaker farmers hive and hoping for some build up!
It feels like musical chairs at the moment keeping things "under control" to avoid loosing bees!!
 #11280  by JoJo36
 22 Jun 2021, 05:10
Well it was 100% successful with Nigel until this year and our odd wet spring build up and everlasting winter until June!
It worked on my hive 2 and the bees pulled down all the queen cells in the brood box with queen thinking they had swarmed already, however I needed the spare brood box and r-joined them too soon!! About 10-14 days better than the 8 I gave them:(
It could be just that they are determined to replace the queen anyway if they feel she is weak or lacking but it did work the first time, I was just a little impatient to be honest!
By using this method its easier than moving them around the garden in different spots running out of space like me:)
I'm keeping an eye on hive 1 to see if they try again, I've depleted them of some brood and put them on brood and a half to give more room, but for me its all guess work at the moment:)
 #11283  by NigelP
 22 Jun 2021, 08:35
Never come across any method that was 100%. The variation of the Snelgrove 2 I'm playing around with has been working quite well, although this year uniting after 7 days instead of the usual 2 weeks has reduced it to 50%.
Still a work in progress.
 #11288  by JoJo36
 22 Jun 2021, 15:14
I would add that my first snelgrove 2 adapted was done wrong as I put supers above old brood box containing the queen and therefore the new entrance created by the snelgrove was too close to the existing when they should have been above new brood box instead where they would have been populated by flying bees! The correct way looks more promising!
 #11423  by JoJo36
 11 Jul 2021, 09:33
My hive 1 has thrown more queen cells up with one sealed!
I've tried a slightly different method as not sure if supercedure or swarm cells as on face of comb and queen is still laying??!! I did gently shake off bees and could have ruined queen cell anyway??!!
I've put existing queen in a fresh brood box with a frame of sealed brood and a frame of nectar above existing brood and supers and snelgrove board. Two entrances same direction.
I've made sure only the 2 cells on one frame in bottom box and will check in around a week!
 #11426  by AdamD
 12 Jul 2021, 14:35
I had a colony, as I think you describe, this year. Sealed queencell in lower brood box; supers above, then a queen excluder and top entrance then the brood and (old) queen. In my case, the queen above continued to lay whilst the queencell opened and the new queen started to lay. The colony remained queenright throughout the process and the old queen was therefore able to 'donate' all of her brood to the young queen when she expired.
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