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Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:25 Jun 2020, 20:48
by Steve 1972
NigelP wrote:
25 Jun 2020, 10:52
Queen spotting is not working well for me at the moment. I have 2 problem hives that I moved to bleed off fliers and reduce numbers of bees, which worked fine. Can I find the queens, can I buggery.
So final straw shook all bees into a brood box with 2 frames, placed a queen excluder on top and put the beeless frames of brood above. At least tomorrow I know where the queens have to be......but to err on caution they will be removed from apiary before checking for them. And air freshener unite the brood boxes to two docile hives nearby.
Me neither but give me a shout if you are struggling i usually get there in the end.. ;)

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:26 Jun 2020, 10:07
by NigelP
Appreciated Steve, but job done. 2 frames + all bee in empty brood box qx on top and all brood above has done the trick.

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:26 Jun 2020, 15:36
by Chrisbarlow
NigelP wrote:
25 Jun 2020, 19:08
Reassuring to hear that Chris. I know a few "experts" who never fail to find the queen it's unreal.....literally.
Lol, yeah I know, I've met that type.

I give them one of those whatever comments

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:26 Jun 2020, 17:17
by Cable_Fairy
I mowed the lawn in front of a National Hive and about an hour later noticed Drone's on the floor near the hive crawling up blades of grass and stopping at the top and start to "eat or drink" the grass end.

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:28 Jun 2020, 14:53
by Leeval1970
Ive been to my apiary to have a quick check on a swarm I hived on Monday . They've drawn 11 frames and the Q is laying eggs . Well chuffed.

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:28 Jun 2020, 23:08
by Chrisbarlow
Leeval1970 wrote:
28 Jun 2020, 14:53
Ive been to my apiary to have a quick check on a swarm I hived on Monday . They've drawn 11 frames and the Q is laying eggs . Well chuffed.
Congrats. It's a nice feeling

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:28 Jun 2020, 23:09
by Chrisbarlow
Drove round looking for a Heather site, got 1 confirmed possibly 2

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:29 Jun 2020, 12:13
by AdamD
NigelP wrote:
22 Jun 2020, 18:18
AdamD wrote:
22 Jun 2020, 13:21
I had a failed introduction about 10 days ago. The old queen had been caged for a week before being removed and there were no quencells. New queen was nowhere to be found a week later. Now a test-frame has gone in, just to check. This, for me, is not a good time of the year to introduce queens.
I've given up, trying to introduce queens to full hive. It's fraught with problems.
My standard approach these days is to not rush it. New queen in nuc and sat next to hive I want to requeen. Upgrade nuc to hive at the same time you move the "awkward" hive somewhere else, this bleeds off the older fliers back into "nuc".
Then find queen in horrible hive, (RIP) and air freshener unite...
To date 100% success rate....not sure it will stay at that rate forever thought.
just done 2 today and another couple planned for later this week.
An update on my failed queen introduction. I put a test frame in to see what was going on after she had not been accepted. After a week there were no queencells on this frame. So that told me that there was a queen in the hive before I put my new one in. On the third frame I took out I was lucky to see a tiny queen. I am not sure where she came from .... Not laying yet, I put her in a cage and popped her back in. As the heavens opened. I have queens that have been laying for just a few days. With a colony desperate for a laying queen, maybe this time she will be accepted. (I have nucs but these are 10 metres away).

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:30 Jun 2020, 15:24
by Japey Edge
That's unfortunate Adam, I hope it all works out with the new queen.

On the subject of test frames, I opened up the suspected queenless green hive that I gave a test frame to last week and the frame was full of queen cells - in almost every imaginative configuration the bees could come up with. I took them all down as I will be uniting them with the recently queened nuc just a few feet away.

All being well that will mean I am running all buckfasts. Hopefully I won't need to purchase any more queens for a few years yet!

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:30 Jun 2020, 16:52
by Liam
Finally found my new queen today, (she looks mated) I had put a decent drawn frame in the middle for her to lay in and boom, she was there, although the hive was pretty defensive today and my queenless nuc wants to kill me, but hopefully all settle down.