Could do with a day or two of sunshine now as I have a lot of virgin queens which need to fly and mate backed up in Apideas.
Could do with a day or two of sunshine now as I have a lot of virgin queens which need to fly and mate backed up in Apideas.
Not really looking like a great week for it. Strong zonal westerly flow and rather cool. OK for those doing breeding in the south of England but we northerners might not get too many new matings this week. However last week had some critical windows after the rainy 7 days for s went past and Jolanta was at the second unit yesterday and there are laying queens there too from 13th to 15th. However it might be a bit deceptive as some of these had queens from the incubator that were perhaps two or even three days old before being set out in the yards.Originally Posted by Jon
We really need to get a wiggle on harvesting queens to allow the next set to go into the boxes as cells rather than virgins.
We were bashing on with full hives yesterday near Edinburgh and they are now in a serious dearth there, with no serious progress since last major visit two weeks ago. No food at all in the nest area, and plenty pollen coming in but no nectar at all. Significant amounts of soot black pollen, which I think might be from field poppies. Very few splits made in June with cells have laying queens yet, in sharp contrast to the smaller mating box units. The black bees, calm and biddable up to now, were positively carnivorous yesterday.
Re the queen cells, I try and remove queens on a Monday which means that if you have grafted on a Thursday you have cells ready to emerge on a Tuesday which are perfect to go straight into the mini nucs after removal of a queen.
Hard to manage perfect timing when the weather can intervene.
Notwithstanding the irritating subtitles "You do not want to get the queen into the sample" this shows how easy it is to do an alcohol wash to count mites ... and a seemingly well-made gadget to do it with.
Screenwash ... nice one.
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