todays news

[Jon]

Biggus.
Did your hive have a clipped queen?
When a swarm emerges with a clipped queen it falls in front of the hive.
Are you sure you saw two different queens or could you have seen the same queen twice.
Was the box not full of queen cells?

To be honest I am totally confused as to what you were trying to do.

I don't understand this at all.

I borrowed a brood frame from the parent hive and used it to try and lure her and her followers into a box of foundation placed over the top of them, with a gap of course.

It didn't seem to work as when I tried to use this to initiate an AS the bees wouldn't enter.

[Dark Bee]

Biggus.
Did your hive have a clipped queen?
When a swarm emerges with a clipped queen it falls in front of the hive.
Are you sure you saw two different queens or could you have seen the same queen twice.
Was the box not full of queen cells?

To be honest I am totally confused as to what you were trying to do.

I don't understand this at all.

I assumed that if Q. was not marked she was not clipped either. A curious situation indeed, there are inconsistencies in the account of what allegedly happened, perhaps Biggus would be kind enough to elaborate.

[Jon]

A mark can wear off

[The Drone Ranger]

The queen Biggus tried to lure into a bait hive disappeared
It was some time later when the queen was spotted near the hive entrance
A swarm? had issued previously and returned
I'm guessing a new queen orienting or mating flights
The original queen was not marked or clipped
This means we can't be sure if that queen at the entrance was her or not
Supersedure could fit the bill if the old girl was pushed out
or the new queen was at both locations on the way home to the hive
Even taking a queen out in a cage the bees find her and 100 or so bees gather round so that's not a swarm not even a cast
Till the hive has been inspected for queen cells it's all guess work

[Dark Bee]

A mark can wear off

Indeed it can or be removed by her minions.
However if Biggus had done the marking, I think neither of the above would have happened!

[lindsay s]

I went through the hives early this evening; one colony is still trying to swarm and the rest are behaving themselves. There’s a good flow on at the moment and the bees are busy dumping the nectar straight into their brood nests. Any spare cell is getting filled up pretty fast and I ‘m hoping they will start moving it upstairs soon. All of my hives have plenty of room in their supers and it will be another 5 to 6 weeks before they are cleared. It’s too soon to tell if it’s going to be a good season but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Does anyone out there get a good crop from the soft fruits or is everything now grown in Polly tunnels?

[Trog]

We get a good crop from the soft fruit in terms of honey ... but the blackbirds get the best of the berries

Good to hear things are going well on Orkney.

[The Drone Ranger]

I went through the hives early this evening; one colony is still trying to swarm and the rest are behaving themselves. There’s a good flow on at the moment and the bees are busy dumping the nectar straight into their brood nests. Any spare cell is getting filled up pretty fast and I ‘m hoping they will start moving it upstairs soon. All of my hives have plenty of room in their supers and it will be another 5 to 6 weeks before they are cleared. It’s too soon to tell if it’s going to be a good season but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Does anyone out there get a good crop from the soft fruits or is everything now grown in Polly tunnels?

http://www.orkneywine.co.uk/ourwines.htm
all these fruits are in the open Lindsay

[fatshark]

Here in the most southerly of the Scottish Borders we've been having some high temperatures - high 20's by 11am with the temperature tonight at 9pm of over 23 C. Working in a beesuit is not comfortable. Although we've not had rain for days there is a fantastic flow on so supers are in short supply ... or in my case only available because I've scrounged some from a friend.

Tonight I requeened a hive that swarmed on Sunday/Monday ... the Q was clipped but looked damaged so she was despatched. The swarm was added back to the original hive. Removing five near full supers to add a new caged queen and reassembling the lot was hard work. I'll have to do the same thing to release her on Thursday or Friday (it's a very strong hive and the last available Q until the next lot of grafts come out from the mating nucs, so I want her to be safely accepted) when it's predicted to be even hotter.

The nectar is coming in so fast that few frames are fully sealed - the end of the field beans and the start of rosebay I think. The sound of the colonies working late in the evening is fantastic.

So ... heaven in terms of honey and well-tempered bees (and the best queen mating conditions I've ever seen - consistently hot, light/no winds) ... but very hard work

[The Drone Ranger]

Here in the most southerly of the Scottish Borders we've been having some high temperatures - high 20's by 11am with the temperature tonight at 9pm of over 23 C. Working in a beesuit is not comfortable. Although we've not had rain for days there is a fantastic flow on so supers are in short supply ... or in my case only available because I've scrounged some from a friend.

Tonight I requeened a hive that swarmed on Sunday/Monday ... the Q was clipped but looked damaged so she was despatched. The swarm was added back to the original hive. Removing five near full supers to add a new caged queen and reassembling the lot was hard work. I'll have to do the same thing to release her on Thursday or Friday (it's a very strong hive and the last available Q until the next lot of grafts come out from the mating nucs, so I want her to be safely accepted) when it's predicted to be even hotter.

The nectar is coming in so fast that few frames are fully sealed - the end of the field beans and the start of rosebay I think. The sound of the colonies working late in the evening is fantastic.

So ... heaven in terms of honey and well-tempered bees (and the best queen mating conditions I've ever seen - consistently hot, light/no winds) ... but very hard work

Hope you either have a strong arm or an electric extractor