BBKA Forum

p.s You're right Alfred, it takes time to inspect and do all the tricks required to stop swarming each year and mine are in my garden!!!

JoJo36 wrote: ↑

21 Apr 2022, 19:55

Maybe they've been "genetically modified" ??!!
I've used the snelgrove 2 method with one of mine and they have now drawn out 2 supercedure cells in top box with queen and in the lower box with just one frame of sealed brood and eggs various loaded queen cells wanting another queen??!! I'm going to have to join a couple of colonies else I'll run out of garden space!!

You need to leave the queen apart from the flying bees for at least 2 weeks until the scout bees (that cause all the problems) have matured into foragers. So why not knock down supersedure cells (assuming queen is still wanted) and remove queen cells from frame in bottom box and then unite back together and no extra hives gained. Of course if you want another queen you cull the old girl and cull the queen cells back to one (many's preferred option) and take it from there.
So many possibilities that don't involve increasing your number of hives.

Funnily enough, thats just what I've been planning in my head!!
I like the queen there in top box although supercedure may mean she is on her way out but I should have destroyed swarm cells in lower box Nigel and just incase, I'll destroy supercedure ones in top box too!!
Thats my "only go in once a week mantra broken already"??!!

Sounds good, if they still draw supersedure cells then perhaps best to let them get on or replace with it. Just check there are eggs before destroying the cells in the upper box.

Well I went in top box and they have pulled down the 2 supercedure cells!! I marked the top bar so they were definitely there so that saved a job and yes there are still eggs there!
Bottom box queen cells destroyed so fingers crossed they will do something constructive like drawing out some foundation instead!!