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Nice to get out and see some bees with all the recent bad weather. Checked my six local colonies. Had to give the biggest two more frames of stores to tide them over, the stores of the other five have remained static or slightly decreased. Glad I took nearly 200lbs of osr earlier in the year coz I reckon I'll be lucky to get another 100 in summer crop. Sold 50lbs to a local beek who has had no surpless whatsoever so could be worse! Really need to search out some borage or heather
 
Found 36bee seems to have stopped egg laying. There were supercedure cells in the hive. Opened one- it had a fat grub so must be from one of her eggs. Removed the frames with qc into a nuc. Shut hive up. Looked at the nuc of qc and discovered 36b has hitched a lift on the frame. So now the big hive has no queen and no cells. Will have to give them a cell back tomorrow

Poor old 36bee has moved house again. Hopefully she likes living in a poly Nuc.

I'm just going to think about my honey supers and forget about queen problems
 
Obee1 said:
Found 36bee seems to have stopped egg laying. There were supercedure cells in the hive. Opened one- it had a fat grub so must be from one of her eggs. Removed the frames with qc into a nuc. Shut hive up. Looked at the nuc of qc and discovered 36b has hitched a lift on the frame. So now the big hive has no queen and no cells. Will have to give them a cell back tomorrow

Poor old 36bee has moved house again. Hopefully she likes living in a poly Nuc.

I'm just going to think about my honey supers and forget about queen problems
Click to expand...

She must be a poor tenant......can't be paying her bills...doing a flit again!
 
I visit my apiary almost daily; today found a weak colony (supercedure awaiting Q mating) heavily infested with wasps with very few bees within. Decided to close the hive and I reduced entrances in all others to 1-2 bee-spaces. I fear a bad year for wasps - unlike last year.
 
Obee1 said:
Found 36bee seems to have stopped egg laying. There were supercedure cells in the hive. Opened one- it had a fat grub so must be from one of her eggs. Removed the frames with qc into a nuc. Shut hive up. Looked at the nuc of qc and discovered 36b has hitched a lift on the frame. So now the big hive has no queen and no cells. Will have to give them a cell back tomorrow

Poor old 36bee has moved house again. Hopefully she likes living in a poly Nuc.

I'm just going to think about my honey supers and forget about queen problems[/QUOTE

Why not put her back where she came from?
Click to expand...
 
nantmoel said:
Why not put her back where she came from?
Click to expand...
It was 7 pm- The hive as too badly behaved to go into earlier in case people about. A child on other side of hedge got stung as it was. Retreated hastily then discovered she was in nuc. Earliest I can go back is tmrw early by which time they may reject her. Anyhow glad she's in a nuc safely where I can watch closely for signs of supercedure.
 
Obee1 said:
It was 7 pm- The hive as too badly behaved to go into earlier in case people about. A child on other side of hedge got stung as it was. Retreated hastily then discovered she was in nuc. Earliest I can go back is tmrw early by which time they may reject her. Anyhow glad she's in a nuc safely where I can watch closely for signs of supercedure.
Click to expand...

You could just pop her back through the entrance of the big hive?
 
Tremyfro said:
You could just pop her back through the entrance of the big hive?
Click to expand...

I think the problem is she is not sure that she got all the cells and is worried about people being stung nearby. Thats why she doesn't want to risk 36.
Personally, I would have torn down all cells and left 36 to do her job. The temperament of the colony will gradually change but she isn't going to see the end of this meangreen episode until her workers are all gone.
 
Doh - let her walk in! I didn't think of that. I'm pretty sure I got all the queencells out but at the time wasn't sure whose eggs they were from. Having seen grubs in them now I know they are 36bees eggs. I think if she were any old queen I'd take a chance and let her walk in this morning. Because she's my specially bought in carni I'm more worried about her survival. But if they want her superceded then they will no doubt keep trying.
Decisions decisions.
A let her walk in and take her chances - keeping the few queencells in nuc as insurance
B. Replace the queencells into the hive keeping 36b safe in the nuc- means opening nasty hive though
C. Do nothing. Keep her in nuc- destroy last cells in the nuc with her. Then in a week give the nasty hive a frame of Petes bucky brood to raise a queen - means opening hive though
D. Leave them a week queenless then newspaper join with my spare welsh queen. I don't mind if something goes wrong with her - no need to look through hive - just join to top of hive.
Or something totally different. I have a spare welsh egg laying queen. I also have a daughter of the AWOL foreign bucky awaiting mating. I'm thinking this hive will accept a queencell better than an introduced queen
 
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Obee1 said:
Doh - let her walk in! I didn't think of that. I'm pretty sure I got all the queencells out but at the time wasn't sure whose eggs they were from. Having seen grubs in them now I know they are 36bees eggs. I think if she were any old queen I'd take a chance and let her walk in this morning. Because she's my specially bought in carni I'm more worried about her survival. But if they want her superceded then they will no doubt keep trying.
Decisions decisions.
A let her walk in and take her chances - keeping the few queencells in nuc as insurance
B. Replace the queencells into the hive keeping 36b safe in the nuc- means opening nasty hive though
C. Do nothing. Keep her in nuc- destroy last cells in the nuc with her. Then in a week give the nasty hive a frame of Petes bucky brood to raise a queen - means opening hive though
D. Leave them a week queenless then newspaper join with my spare welsh queen. I don't mind if something goes wrong with her - no need to look through hive - just join to top of hive.
Or something totally different. I have a spare welsh egg laying queen. I also have a daughter of the AWOL foreign bucky awaiting mating. I'm thinking this hive will accept a queencell better than an introduced queen
Click to expand...

Since you only removed her yesterday...there is a chance there are still eggs in the hive. They may make more queen cells...so problem solved...they make another queen from 36. You have 36 safe in a nuc...but with the queen cells. Why not take the queen cells and put them in a separate nuc...with some frames and bees from another of your many hives. That way you will have extra queens.
 
Tremyfro said:
Since you only removed her yesterday...there is a chance there are still eggs in the hive. They may make more queen cells...so problem solved...they make another queen from 36. You have 36 safe in a nuc...but with the queen cells. Why not take the queen cells and put them in a separate nuc...with some frames and bees from another of your many hives. That way you will have extra queens.
Click to expand...
Ha therein lies the problem. My three poly nucs are all hosting queens just now and I'm on a spending embargo. Also if OH notices yet another colony being started up he may well explode. I do have lots of spare hive floors bodies and roofs though...... Hmm and bags of polystyrene packing beads to dummy down with. And maybe he won't notice a new hive in the garden.
I really need to find an out apiary. Think I have one in dinas powys but can't view it till 8 August.
 
Tremyfro said:
Since you only removed her yesterday...there is a chance there are still eggs in the hive. They may make more queen cells...so problem solved...they make another queen from 36. You have 36 safe in a nuc...but with the queen cells. Why not take the queen cells and put them in a separate nuc...with some frames and bees from another of your many hives. That way you will have extra queens.
Click to expand...

She already has sealed queen cells from 36 in her nuc (option b)...so she could use one of these.
I am a bit worried that you don't see the need to prepare for winter though. It may be only July and warm(ish) outside but the nectar flow won't go on indefinitely. I recommended that you put 36 back and destroy the cells. Its time to start thinking of consolidation NOT expansion.
 
2015 test queens arrived from Germany

Next year, I will be testing two new family groups of island mated Carnica. If they are as good as this years, I will be very pleased with the result :)
6-1-1233-2015 Line C3-017
6-1-1248-2015 Line C3-017
6-1-1254-2015 Line C3-017

6-1-1013-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1022-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1037-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1044-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1065-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1214-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1220-2015 Line C7-007

You can follow their results at https://www2.hu-berlin.de/beebreed/ZWS/Startseiten/englisch/Bienenzucht-Start.html with my breeder number 55-15
 

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B+. said:
She already has sealed queen cells from 36 in her nuc (option b)...so she could use one of these.
I am a bit worried that you don't see the need to prepare for winter though. It may be only July and warm(ish) outside but the nectar flow won't go on indefinitely. I recommended that you put 36 back and destroy the cells. Its time to start thinking of consolidation NOT expansion.
Click to expand...
You will be pleased to hear I put her back in the hive. Just caught her in my one handed queen catcher and released her into the hive entrance. I'm not opening the hive to look now. So she's going to be left to it.
 
B+. said:
Next year, I will be testing two new family groups of island mated Carnica. If they are as good as this years, I will be very pleased with the result :)
6-1-1233-2015 Line C3-017
6-1-1248-2015 Line C3-017
6-1-1254-2015 Line C3-017

6-1-1013-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1022-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1037-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1044-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1065-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1214-2015 Line C7-007
6-1-1220-2015 Line C7-007

You can follow their results at https://www2.hu-berlin.de/beebreed/ZWS/Startseiten/englisch/Bienenzucht-Start.html with my breeder number 55-15
Click to expand...

Would love to follow their results but don't think I can access the data without being a member

Btw do you speak german? I notice some of the stuff is only available in german
 
Obee1 said:
Just caught her in my one handed queen catcher
Click to expand...

What does a 1-handed queen catcher look like? (Sounds like a product of Messrs Heath & Robinson ;-) )

leather_catchers.jpg


Having damaged a queen when moving between hives this year, I'm on the lookout
 
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Popped up to the apiary which houses one of my three colonies in advance of a session showing friends around on the weekend. Last week they were sweet as can be, today I was mobbed after 30 seconds without even opening up (weather is fine with no rain/thunder on the horizon).

Three theories - 1) They've lost the queen, 2) last week's young bees have turned into adolescent thugs 3) having just put my suit through a water only wash, there was enough residual detergent to give it a nasty niff.

Time will tell!
 
Just rushed home from work as I was paranoid about them running out of food. As the weather is not meant to get much better i topped up each hive with some sugar syrup.
Hive 1, the queen was still in her cage so i released her. Time will tell if they reject her like the last one.

Hive two, lots of dead bees, I think they ran out of food. Still a huge colony though.
Hive 3 - Still very angry, threw food in and ran away. Will order a new queen or put some eggs from hive 2 in at a later date.
 
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