Rowie, I've now twice introduced test frames in my colony, but they did not draw out queen cells although I'm almost 100% sure they're queenless - so I asked for advice and was told it's too late for test frames to be accurate; that they might not draw out queen cells even though they're queenless. So bear that in mind with your test frame. I'm now going to unite my colony with another using a queen excluder as DR suggested (and keep my fingers crossed).
Kitta
I had a different experience, I treated a hive in Late Spring with MAQS, the only hive not to try to swarm or supersede out of the lot! Maybe the time if year is a contributory factor?Originally Posted by busybeephilip
HJBee, Could be a whole number of reasons - the queen fertility perhaps damaged by MAQS so the hive did not build to full strength for mid may, the queen was superceded without you knowing again affecting hive strength. The queen was a young queen so not as likely to swarm, could be an influence of non swarmy genetics from the queens mating. Or as you suggest and probably most likely as you are an experienced beekeeper, time of year late spring when it is cooler than it is now so the acid might not be so damaging to the queen due to slower evaporation. Its a hard one to call but there is enough problems being experienced / reported out there to suggest that we don't know the whole story behind the use of MAQS, some success and some failures. As long as everyone is aware of the risk then its their choice to use it.
Definitely retained the same queen who was clipped & marked and from the previous season. Like you say all treatments seem to have their drawbacks, shame we need to use them and in my case use more than we used to. (And I've only been at it 3 years).
Mel I had kept an old queen, her 3rd year she had done well and I didn't have the heart to squish her so put her in a nuc and she was building it up quite well. Last Saturday I found her with no brood and no eggs and decided to join them with a young queen in a similar sized nuc with a queen excluder. What I thought were queen less bees then proceeded to drag the young queen out the front door. When I checked again there was a virgin in the top nuc which her own bees obviously preferred. I don't have a drone anywhere so the VG is gone and I now have a young queen laying but with limp. Never had that before
Re MAQS, if you have spare queens and are prepared to lose the resident queen it is certainly an effective varroa treatment.
I tried it for the first time this year and same as Philip I would stick with Apiguard plus winter Oxalic as the treatment of choice.
Here Here Jon re MAQS,
Was poking at the bees this evening and can still smell the thymol in the apairy from the pads most now covered with propolis. Was weighing hives too - they are gaining a good bit of weight from the ivy, this evening all fanning vigoursly and had to transfer a nuc to BB (a PD graft queen open mated :-) ) Hmmm...... still increasing numbers against my better judgment - got bees bad -just can't help it.
I'm surprised to see so many of you are still doing inspections - weather must be alot kinder elsewhere. I have got small entrances on, and pretty much resigned myself to completing feeding then closing up until the apivar strips need to be removed. Bees were a bit tetchy, I don't want to risk being too intrusive at this point and with feeding started, lifting frames always results in some release of stores, there's always a wasp or two having a look and I worry about inducing robbing. It feels a bit unsatisfactory because although I am happy all colonies had laying Q's a late supercedure that runs into problems and would be dealt with, could be missed. How late on are people planning to keep up inspections? And is it just to check that colonies are Q-right?
New Queen (I think) but no drones
Did an inspection on a new small colony today before deciding to apply the 2nd lot of 2 week of Apiguard, this particular queen is not off the lay with it. Will check them again and feed it 2 weeks. I'm needing to move mine for a short while from their site so will be checking them obviously during that which will be Oct - Nov. Rest I dont plan to be in and about past mid Oct. HJ
Last edited by HJBee; 19-09-2014 at 10:18 PM.
Sure is feckless. We have had no rain for 3 weeks and have had several days with the temperature over 20c.
Balmy Belfast!
I have 15 virgins recently emerged in Apideas I am hoping will get mated.
Big flow on from the ivy as well. Queens are laying and the combs are dripping with nectar.
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