ESBA Apiarist
From one to ... ten??
by
, 24-05-2011 at 09:02 PM (4038 Views)
I wish I could have taken you all with me. What was one bursting colony two weeks ago went over to making Q cells and was split. The queen-right part lost its queen (judging from the age of the larvae, a few days after I last opened it and while there were only eggs in queen cells) and went over to making Q cells itself. In the meantime it had expanded onto another couple of frames. The other part (judging from the age of the larvae 12 days ago) was due to have its first virgin hatch yesterday. So, as you might imagine, the weather postponed opening until lunchtime today. Working quickly, I put two or three frames each into six of those Paynes polystyrene nucs that take 6 frames. Then checked through them - without smoke. Transferred one Q cell into one that didn't have one, and opened four more that had roughened tips and sure enough, there were dark virgins sitting there ready to emerge. They went into four stocked Apideas in the car boot. The six with care and feeding should fill a National by autumn. If the queens get mated of course. The Apideas are my first attempt so I'll not expect much from them.
After work the cold wind had driven almost all inside their nucs. So, six nucs on the back seat of the car, four Apideas in the boot, and as I set off the queens started piping to keep me company. All 10 boxes are now sitting under some flowering hawthorn at the edge of a rape field near Dundee beside the apiary of one of our members. I even remembered to let the bees out. I'll take a picture when I'm there next. Here's hoping for some nice weather in about 5 days for the queens to find the drones over the hawthorn hedge.