Will your bees attempt to swarm in May

[Feckless Drone]

Last weekend - in very quick inspections of 4 colonies (and dismantling of another one that died out - starvation, my fault) saw one dead Q, three lovely living Qs, but disappointed to not see the fourth in a very strong colony. Checked notes later - of course i did not see her, she's not marked. That's got to be my first task come next inspection day.

The bees are hanging on and we've got to do the same. The magical part of beekeeping's been a bit on hold so far but I think it starts up again this weekend.

[fatshark]

The magical part of beekeeping still feels a long way off ...

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29th April 2016

... my views on this topic remain broadly similar to those expressed in my original post.

[nemphlar]

Went to check the food situation and managed to get the Snelgrove board (mesh open till they reorganise) on one of the hives before the rain came back on, queen luckily was on the second frame a I checked, every frame had some sealed brood, had to move the queen with the least I could find. They were surprisingly forgiving with rain coming on.
They do seem to be racing on regardless of the weather, didn't see too many drones unfortunately

[gavin]

One of last year's beginners has been very attentive and also has his bees in a sheltered spot, allowing inspections when mine were still needing peace and quiet. They are currently in two brood boxes and a super, plenty of space, but had at least one QC early stage developing (with larva) on Saturday 30 April. AS being performed today I hope.

[The Drone Ranger]

Its a nuisance Gavin because you dont want to depend on getting a queen mated early
No queens in your miniplus you could just pinch for the split ?

[fatshark]

Or do a split vertically and then if the top half fails to get a mated queen you can always unite back down.

[gavin]

No spare queens here, I only tried to overwinter 2 Minipluses and they both failed.

Tony managed to do his artificial swarm today, top marks to him. There were several part-developed queen cells. Found the queen with a struggle. It will be perhaps 10 days until the first queen emerges then another 6 before she flies for mating. Mating 19 May to 4 June and probably beyond if necessary. Should be fine. He's done a side to side split but could still reunite on one spot if necessary.

[greengumbo]

I moved bees to OSR a few days ago and went to check them today. Plenty happening with a few new queen cups and a big frame of drone in my strongest polys. Took the drone out for the chooks and replaced with drawn worker comb - should knock down any early varroa.

OSR about 5% open and forecast good. Will super them in the next few days. Do most of you do pro-active supering....ie stick 2-3 supers on and leave them be ? Local guy does it this way whereas I tend to just add them as and when.

[Neils]

We do now have OSR, it's been out just over a week. Dandelions have now also appeared! My surviving nuc needed a good feed last week and if it swarms in May I will have to assume that it's May 2017. I didn't think it was strong back in January, but it isn't giving up just yet though I did catch it in the nick of time last week starting to starve.

[The Drone Ranger]

I am putting the Snelgrove boards on this weekend
(For better or worse)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4k...w?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4k...w?usp=drivesdk

Screenshot-49.jpg

This is the front and rear of the cards I use
The rear let's you keep track of the Snelgrove doors
It might help when there are a lot to keep an eye on

The door numbers are when standing at the rear of the hive
So it's
1 above 2 on your right
3 above 4 on your left
5 above 6 rear centre

Also method 2 should say move the Queen and a frame of brood to the bottom not just a frame of brood
Best of luck with it


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