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Thread: todays news

  1. #3911
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Last week's news: I know mother and daughter are often found in the same hive, but I was surprised at the length of time one of my mother-daughter teams have been together now.

    Around mid-May I saw a new queen in the hive, and no sign of the mother. By mid-June I marked her red. I assumed she was mated as there were eggs in the hive, and I still didn't see the mother. I saw the red queen once more, and then for the whole of July I didn't see a queen at all - but there were always eggs.

    The beginning of this month I saw yet another new queen - unmarked - in the super (no queen excluder), and found the mother still happily living downstairs in the brood box, and no red queen. During my inspection I moved the new queen into the brood box and assumed the mother will have vanished by my next visit - but she's still there! The young queen is back in the super and the mother is below.

    So, since mid-May the mother and a daughter have been living together - three months! Is that usual? (Out of interest - the mother is one of the queens that survived floating down the Deveron in January 2016.)

    Kitta

  2. #3912

    Default todays news

    Interesting stuff Kita. I'll also be interested in the responses you get.

    I was doing some quick inspections, treatment and feeding on Wednesday morning before heading off on holiday. Found one colony completely broodless and relatively grumpy.

    They also hadn't bothered going through the hole in the crownboard to clean up some wet supers I had given them the day before. Not sure of the significance of this but the other three colonies I had given the same to had cleaned them completely, so thought it was interesting.

    I was going to the airport in a couple of hours and away for two weeks so had no time for a test frame, I think it's a bit late for mating and I didn't want to come back to laying workers, so I went to the smallest room in the house to retrieve the air freshener and embarked on a C4U-style unite.

    Had a look an hour later and there were quite a few bees crawling on the ground but it didn't look like complete carnage. On reflection, when I saw Murray doing this at the heather I think it was generally two colonies with laying queens that were being united so I suppose the main risk is that my broodless hive had a virgin running around in it, she challenges my lovely, gentle, and very prolific 2018 laying queen to some fisticuffs, wins, and then fails to mate and I now have two knackered colonies in one. Time will tell!
    Last edited by Jambo; 26-08-2018 at 06:41 PM.

  3. #3913
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    Kitta, I guess the red marked queen failed to mate or had something wrong with her so she never got as far as bumping off her mum. It DOES seem a long time for two queens, however it would appear that your bees clearly know what they are trying to achieve. As a 2015 queen, your queen doesn't have too long to go perhaps; mine don't get past their third year - I tried to overwinter three 2015 queens over the past winter - all in nucs. One died during the winter and the colony didn't survive the Beast from the East. The second was superceded quite early in the season. Thankfully the weather was OK for mating. The third lasted another couple of months after several supercedure events where I stole the queencells. Finally I saw the daughter out one day with Mum still present. I thought that the next day I would retire her to a mini-nuc as she was still laying well albeit a little slowly, but she had gone.

    How long do queens last for you? Your season is shorter than mine so there's a good chance that your queens will go on for a bit longer than darn sarth?

  4. #3914
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    You're probably right, Adam, that something might have been wrong with the red queen, and I suppose the two-storey arrangement of mother in the brood box and daughter in the super might also help to keep them living together in the same hive.

    I had quite a few blue queens earlier in the season, but I think this queen is the last one. The others have all disappeared for one reason or another, and I had to kill two. (I try to avoid doing that - but sometimes it must.)

    I hope you find your favourite queen still in the hive when you come back from your holidays, Jambo. Fingers crossed.

    Kitta

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    My oldest queen -a 4 year old Buckfast# - was superceded this year. Mum and daughter seen in August. Just as well as Mum was hobbling and no honey yield this year - I left one honey super on all hives as I was tired of manually extracting . Through teh clear CB today I could see LOTS more bees - a full 10 frames so hopefully they will be good next year..
    # never swarmed.

  6. #3916
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    The Scottish Bee Company were on Good Morning Scotland today. https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/b0bhrhk1 You’all find it at 2:43:50
    I never new about them, nice website. https://scottishbeecompany.co.uk/

  7. #3917
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Nice packaging on their honey as well.
    Cool website but pity about that Einstein quote.

    einstein-bee-quote-bogus-nw-md.jpg

    PS What's with the 'bee count' at the top of the page ... it's increasing. Perhaps it only records births, not deaths.

  8. #3918
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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post


    PS What's with the 'bee count' at the top of the page ... it's increasing. Perhaps it only records births, not deaths.
    If the activity at the front of my hives this week is anything to go by, my drone count will soon be zero.

  9. #3919
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post
    ...
    PS What's with the 'bee count' at the top of the page ... it's increasing. Perhaps it only records births, not deaths.
    Perhaps Greengumbo can tell us!

  10. #3920

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mellifera Crofter View Post
    I hope you find your favourite queen still in the hive when you come back from your holidays, Jambo. Fingers crossed.

    Kitta
    Thanks Kitta - managed a look today and delighted to find her there and now a big hive of docile bees. Although I think I took the right action in the circumstances I'm not sure I will repeat it when I have the time for a test frame!

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