todays news

**Dark Bee** · 05-07-2013, 08:37 PM

Kitta, when selecting a queen cell, part of the received wisdom here is to avoid any cells located near drone cells/comb. I always suspected the reason was to avoid what you describe. Sorry about your spot of wretched luck.

**fatshark** · 05-07-2013, 08:40 PM

Busy evening ...

Score card
Queens from mini-nucs marked and caged = 6
Old Queens from hives with poor brood pattern, chalkbrood, running on the frames or otherwise undesirable traits squidged on the fence post = 2
Old Queens saved for donation to a good cause (mates with known queenless colonies) = 2
Hives requeened = 6, 4 with caged queens, 1 as a nuc and 1 with a sealed caged queen because I'm not certain they're actually queenless.
Cells added to mini-nucs = 4
Cells to add to mini-nucs tomorrow morning = 4 ... simply ran out of time and was gasping for a beer ;-)

**Jon** · 05-07-2013, 08:49 PM

We put cells into 16 apideas yesterday evening and left them in a stack.
There was some impressive piping going on when I was over earlier this evening.
I also saw a queen returning to an apidea at about 5.15, probably just an orientation flight but worth checking it in a couple of days.
It is easy to tell which apideas have queens out flying due to the activity and nervousness of the workers at the entrance.
I know now to stop and watch for a minute or two and I often see a queen coming back from a flight.

**The Drone Ranger** · 05-07-2013, 09:41 PM

Hi Kitta
What type of swarm board did you have on ?

**fatshark** · 05-07-2013, 09:42 PM

Have you noticed how subdued mini-nucs are having had the laying queen removed when you visit them later that day to put in a new cell? At least mine are. It's almost as if they're thinking "Darn it ... now we'll have to start all over again ... I just can't be bothered, can you?".

**Bridget** · 05-07-2013, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger

Hi Bridget
I wonder if you brought your own bees back before the start of October for feeding and treating for varroa prior to winter, or just left them with enough heather stores to see them through.
Any tips would be welcome thanks

Well I live right on the border of heather. In other words my bees fly a few hundred yards to the heather so I've no need to move them. However this means I need to use a varroa treatment that is not temperature reliant to treat for varroa as its end Sept at the earliest that I can treat them/ when there is no brood and temperatures have started to fall by then. I do feed them as well though I leave any stores in the brood box for them to use as well.

**EmsE** · 05-07-2013, 10:46 PM

Finally got the chance to check the bees after almost 2 weeks. One hive had a queen cell (suspercedure) with the queen beginning to work her way out. I was sure I've heard people on the forum mention 'pulling' a queen so decided to give her a hand. It was great to see the virgin queen emerge- something I didn't think I would ever see.

I will need to check the hives at the other sites, a couple of nucs to see if the new queen is laying yet, including the one I haven't got round to moving from the back garden on Sunday. Next week I'm going up to my sisters on the North coast and hope to get to play with her bees too. One colony has had the same queen for 4 years and hasn't made any queen cells since she hatched. It's a pity the bees wouldn't do well here as I could do with some non-swarmy genetics.

**Mellifera Crofter** · 06-07-2013, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by Dark Bee

Kitta, when selecting a queen cell, part of the received wisdom here is to avoid any cells located near drone cells/comb. I always suspected the reason was to avoid what you describe. Sorry about your spot of wretched luck.

Thanks DB - I'll remember that. I wonder whether receiving all that royal jelly might have changed the drone's nature? Fortunately that was not a cell I either selected or needed. I saw the new queen.

Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger

Hi Kitta
What type of swarm board did you have on ?

I made it, DR. I think it is a Snelgrove but without the central ventilation bit that some Snelgroves have. It has doors above and below the board on three sides but in the end I only used one door.

I have these before and after photos of the tower. The board lies in front of the daughter hive in the second photo.

I just realised that another reason why I found it so impossible to check the queen's box was because I originally had the hive on double brood. That meant that the daughter's part consisted of two brood boxes and a super. I thought removing all of those boxes to check on the mother hive might cause too much mayhem in the daughter hive. Never again if I can help it.

Kitta

IMG_4624.jpg IMG_4657.jpg

**marion.orca** · 06-07-2013, 08:42 AM

BOTTOMS UP !
Quick question here to see if anyone has an answer/explanation to this as it's really piqued my curiosity. At the hive inspection yesterday, along with a friend, we noticed the Queen with her head buried into one of the cells, which she did on 3 occasions - she didn't lay in them though. Is it a fanciful idea I have that she is checking them to see that they are up to her standards, prior to using them - or is there some other logical reason for this ? Thanks for the input - I find this intriguing.