Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => Swarms, Cut Outs, Trap Outs and Bee Trees => Topic started by: Bakersdozen on June 06, 2016, 11:43:13 am
-
This spring, I gave a split to my step daughter. She was wanting to learn beekeeping. All appeared to be going well. She and I went through the colony together on one occasion. I explained what to look for, how to go through a hive, etc. etc. I would have liked to have worked with her in the hive more but my job and the constant rain got in the way. I felt like she didn't want to impose on me by asking for help either.
I got a picture from her via cell phone on Saturday. Her hive was in the process of swarming.
Sunday we went through the two brood box hive frame by frame. Found bunches of queen cells, two capped. Queen long gone.
This was the game plan I came up with:
We cleaned up the burr comb.
She was missing one frame (?) so the bees drew out the comb and it was filled with drone brood. Removed that and looked for varroa in capped drone brood. Found some!
We cut out all uncapped queen cells.
Cut out one capped queen cell, left one that was in a good spot. Marked the frame the remaining queen cell is on.
Called to order a new queen.
When ordered queen arrives and is introduced, the queen cell will get cut out. If she has hatched by the time the purchased queen arrives, we go with plan B.
The reason(s) I left the queen cell:
I was considering pheromone levels. Not too sure about a queen cell emitting pheromone but thought it might be possible. I think the workers find reassurance in a queen cell being present.
Things can happen, and didn't want to leave the colony without a back up queen source.
Hoping this keeps a laying worker from emerging.
If all goes well, we will take the frame with the remaining queen cell, nurse bees, etc. and make a nuc. The colony still has lots of bees remaining.
I am just wondering if this plan has any holes in it. Thoughts?
-
Two "supposed" holes according to many oldtimers. Cut the oldest cells and leave 2 or 3 newer ones. They say the newer ones may be made from younger larva.
Second, as above, leave 2 or 3, not just one.
-
Leaving all capped queen cells occurred to me today. Could have made up a nuc yesterday using one of those cells.
My supplier has an extra queen, so we should introduce her today.
-
Just for Information. It is the presence of brood that keep the laying workers from starting to lay.
-
Thanks for that info, apis. Yes there was plenty of capped brood.
Just came back from the hive in question.
We took out the frame with the queen cell that also had brood and nurse bees on it, another frame with brood and nurse bees, added a frame of honey, another frame with some honey and open cells, and a frame with empty drawn comb. We put this in a nuc box with entrance reducer and feed.
To the queenless colony we put the queen, with cage, in. She will be released in 3 days if all looks well.
They were showing non aggressive interest in her.
I told my step daughter we were making lemonade out of lemons, if all goes well. If it doesn't work, we will combine the two again. I also explained that we could have done this with the capped queen cell that we destroyed yesterday. :sad: We both learned something out of this.
-
bakers, best wishes to you and your step daughter, hope all goes well!
it just goes to our learning curve, you are a better beekeeper for making lemonade out of lemons! (forging on not giving up).
non aggressive behavior with the cage in, a good sign. i like to watch how the bees react to queens in a cage, i think it can tell us a great deal.
good luck and keep us posted on progress of both!
-
Update on the nuc box. We transferred two queen cells with a frame of honey, a couple of frames of brood with nurse bees and some pollen into a nuc box. The hive that had the queen cells received a bred laying queen. Today, together we went through both hives and all is well with the original colony. The nuc box is doing GREAT!!! 5 frames with larvae and capped brood. We will move this nuc into a 10 frame this week and continue to feed.
Something caught my step daughter's eye and she was shouting at me, "I think this is a queen!" This was about 10ft from the nuc. She tried to corral her, but the queen started crawling on her. Before we could get her on top of the nuc, the queen took flight. I think she went in. The nuc had been a little noisy and calmed right down after that. She was huge and a pretty gold color. I don't think she was injured.
It was an exciting day for us!
-
...It was an exciting day for us!
Priceless! :goodjob:
-
lol! enjoyed the update bakers! very cool!!!