Hi guys,
I've just completed what was, to me, a pretty wild but interesting hour of bee (keeping?) work...
Most of you will be aware of the situation with the QCs popping up over the last two weeks... So this week I did as I was told (finally! ). Here we go:
Colony 1 - This is my main colony, in an abelo poly hive I painted in a brick pattern, formed from a 6 frame nucleus which was jam packed about 6 weeks ago. They built up the frames with foundation really fast but recently decided to make queen cells despite the queen laying a nice pattern and having no physical problems that I can see.
With Hive 1, I saw two QCs today. I located the queen, trapped her with crown of thorns, then split the box, moving her into a nuc about 10 feet away from the original hive location. I moved 3 frames of brood, one of stores, shook some extra bees in, and added two frames with foundation to make my 6 frame maisies nuc up.
I added 4 frames of foundation to colony 1. I put them on the edge of the frames with brood, making sure outside of them were drawn frames with stores.
Colony 2 - this is the maisies nuc. They have about 200g of ApiCandy Proteico pressed into the frames.
Colony 3 - This was the gift from Nigel. I gave them a quick check for stores and they were running low on them. I noticed 4 sealed queen cells. I gave them some ApiCandy Proteico - about 300g since I only had a 1kg bag. I took a lump, spread it on some cling film and pressed into the top of the frames. I stuck the lid back on and will now leave them to it for a few weeks. They have been queuing a lot so I enlarged the entrance to about 2 inches wide.
Colony 4 - Not sure I can call it a colony. What I did here was shook some bees from super frames on colony 1 into a bucket and gave them a light spray with water. I then scooped a little over 300ml in a pyrex jug into my mini mating hive (polystyrene one) and slid the bottom back in and put it upright. I then stuck a cocktail stick through the alimunium that I wrapped the QC with and sat it in the designated gap between two frames in the mini mating hive. I added a slab of ApiCandy Proteico - about 300g again, into the feeder area and closed them up. I then lightly sprayed the front vent.
This little box is sat in my garage, on two small pieces of wood, to allow air flow under the box, and within an empty brood box. There is no roof on top. This is to the advice I found online about leaving them in a dark place for a few days, locked up. I plan to go back and spray them a little bit each day.
Back to colony 1. I did take out a QE, hoping they wouldn't be raising more QCs. I ended up taking the super off. They made a start on drawing comb on some frames, but nothing amazing. Since they're down in numbers and need to draw 4 more frames in the brood box, I thought it best to remove the super and give them the rest of the ApiCandy Proteico.
I think that's pretty much it. I now have one standard national poly, a maisies 6 frame nuc, a home-made nuc and a mini mating hive.
If anyone managed to read all the way through that I would really appreciate a straightforward reply on how I did and what I could have done better. Also, if there is anything I urgently need to do due to my misunderstanding advice or doing something wrong, please do tell as soon as you can.
Thanks guys
I've just completed what was, to me, a pretty wild but interesting hour of bee (keeping?) work...
Most of you will be aware of the situation with the QCs popping up over the last two weeks... So this week I did as I was told (finally! ). Here we go:
Colony 1 - This is my main colony, in an abelo poly hive I painted in a brick pattern, formed from a 6 frame nucleus which was jam packed about 6 weeks ago. They built up the frames with foundation really fast but recently decided to make queen cells despite the queen laying a nice pattern and having no physical problems that I can see.
With Hive 1, I saw two QCs today. I located the queen, trapped her with crown of thorns, then split the box, moving her into a nuc about 10 feet away from the original hive location. I moved 3 frames of brood, one of stores, shook some extra bees in, and added two frames with foundation to make my 6 frame maisies nuc up.
I added 4 frames of foundation to colony 1. I put them on the edge of the frames with brood, making sure outside of them were drawn frames with stores.
Colony 2 - this is the maisies nuc. They have about 200g of ApiCandy Proteico pressed into the frames.
Colony 3 - This was the gift from Nigel. I gave them a quick check for stores and they were running low on them. I noticed 4 sealed queen cells. I gave them some ApiCandy Proteico - about 300g since I only had a 1kg bag. I took a lump, spread it on some cling film and pressed into the top of the frames. I stuck the lid back on and will now leave them to it for a few weeks. They have been queuing a lot so I enlarged the entrance to about 2 inches wide.
Colony 4 - Not sure I can call it a colony. What I did here was shook some bees from super frames on colony 1 into a bucket and gave them a light spray with water. I then scooped a little over 300ml in a pyrex jug into my mini mating hive (polystyrene one) and slid the bottom back in and put it upright. I then stuck a cocktail stick through the alimunium that I wrapped the QC with and sat it in the designated gap between two frames in the mini mating hive. I added a slab of ApiCandy Proteico - about 300g again, into the feeder area and closed them up. I then lightly sprayed the front vent.
This little box is sat in my garage, on two small pieces of wood, to allow air flow under the box, and within an empty brood box. There is no roof on top. This is to the advice I found online about leaving them in a dark place for a few days, locked up. I plan to go back and spray them a little bit each day.
Back to colony 1. I did take out a QE, hoping they wouldn't be raising more QCs. I ended up taking the super off. They made a start on drawing comb on some frames, but nothing amazing. Since they're down in numbers and need to draw 4 more frames in the brood box, I thought it best to remove the super and give them the rest of the ApiCandy Proteico.
I think that's pretty much it. I now have one standard national poly, a maisies 6 frame nuc, a home-made nuc and a mini mating hive.
If anyone managed to read all the way through that I would really appreciate a straightforward reply on how I did and what I could have done better. Also, if there is anything I urgently need to do due to my misunderstanding advice or doing something wrong, please do tell as soon as you can.
Thanks guys
Jazz