Page 162 of 301

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:05 May 2021, 14:04
by Patrick
Would be useful to take a pic on your phone and maybe upload them to check?

Could be the empty cell has emerged already. Does it hae a neat round hole at the end tinged dark brown? Thats where the virgin cut herself out. Did you see any eggs?

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:05 May 2021, 18:38
by JoJo36
I should have taken some pics but it was too cold really to check but all I had was swarm on my mind:)
I saw eggs in some comb and found the queen too!
I checked this hive on 27th April and found one what I thought was one supercedure cell so I took out and put in my nuc where it was destroyed by the bees there! I guessed if they wanted to replace queen they would build some more cells.
I checked again on 2nd May and found these two cells (which were not there before) but I cant remember them being sealed, so I don't think possible a queen has emerged but in my world you never know:)
At lease for now I know they won't swarm and I'll check again when weather improves!
Thanks for all your suggestions and advice in the meantime:)

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:08 May 2021, 12:15
by NigelP
Long laying break......
One of my hives, 1st brief inspection in March showed BIAS....all fine.
A longer inspection on 8th April showed no young brood or eggs.....weather had been bad so assumed a laying break..
18th of April still no young brood or eggs so added a test frame as reckoned queen might have snuffed it.
Yesterday (7th Masy) went to check if drawn queen cells...nope but now eggs everywhere...no young larvae. Found and marked queen, so she had had a laying break of almost a month!
Reduced into a nuc as bee numbers were low.

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:08 May 2021, 13:14
by JoJo36
Blimey

Just shows how bad the weather's been a month of no laying!!
At least she is alive and kicking:)

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:08 May 2021, 17:31
by MickBBKA
I am at my wits end, I took the plunge on Fri afternoon at 9c to inspect one of my bigger colonies as I haven't been able to for a month and it had drones in it then with 16 frames of brood. It now has 24 frames of brood and I couldn't see any eggs or young larvae to start with and presumed it had swarmed. Then mid way through the 2nd BB I found the marked queen and several frames of eggs so thought ok. Then I found a big fat emerged queen cell but couldn't see a new queen. So maybe they intended to supercede or swarm and changed their minds because of the severe weather which would account for the brood break. Most worrying thing is there was barely a drop of nectar/honey in the whole hive and no pollen. -2c again last night. I may have to feed them in the next few days. This is doing my head in. Every year the spring seems worse than the last one.

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:08 May 2021, 18:19
by NigelP
Just get on with it Mick....the bees call the tune and we dance to it if we want them to survive. Mine are also very short of pollen, so just as well I am able to add some of them last years frozen pollen frames.
All I can see from most of my hives is that they are ready to explode and I hope the predicted coming high temps trigger a massive income to the hives.

Should I add a super??!!

PostPosted:09 May 2021, 08:26
by JoJo36
Just a quick one if I may??!!

My farmers hive I did a shook swarm on had a queen cell that has emerged (somewhere).
I've constantly fed sugar syrup to them to draw out all combs which they've done and added syrup to quite a few of the frames.
Do you think I should now remove feeder and add a super to give them room or should I wait as will they just bring syrup up from brood to super frames??!! I'm hoping queen will get mated and will have a nice clean hive to lay in??!!

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:09 May 2021, 11:27
by JoJo36
Another thought would be to place a super of undrawn comb to give the bees something to do??!!

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:09 May 2021, 19:13
by Alfred
Like Mick this weather is causing me sleep loss- either sunny but barely into double figures or just lashing down .
I was up at 6 this morning couldn't get back to sleep
Theyre gagging to go most have thrown up qcs like a pair of marigolds.
I studied BBC weather for the postcode and the least - shite weather for the next ten days was this afternoon
Bull by the horns and got going.
Was confronted by this when we got there
Image

My one decent rockstar colony on the off.
Million bees in the air
13c with 12 mph wind.
Fck it
They must have checked the forecast too.
I managed to do a brutal cowboy split but halfway through the missus who was sat in the van started shouting
Another hive coated in bees .
Attended to those while the first lot repopulated both boxes
More shouting ,another hive had sprouted a beard.
I ended up doing all of them.
Except the two that had already gone :(
Cant wait to retire - my employer doesnt regard beekeeping as frontline activity.

Re: What have you done today bee-related?

PostPosted:09 May 2021, 19:40
by NigelP
Clip your queen Alfred it saves all this hassle.
You might lose the queen but not your workforce. Judging by your pictures you have quite a honey gathering crew....assuming the weather this year allows plants to produce any nectar....(At this point I would add don't keep swarmy bees, but no one listens to me about this and most keep insisting their local (annual swarming) bees are the way to go....I wring my hands).
Big grin....