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I would make a nuc as a spare with one of those queen cells and later unite it with another colony.
Your fly by the seat of your pants beekeeping might find a spare queen useful.
Try sticking to 3 or 4 hives max thought your head might pop if you get any more than that.



Have 1 frame with 1 QC taken from hive 3 in a brood box dummied down to 1 frame brood, 1 frame super stores and 1 frame of foundation. Not ideal but best in this instance. Hive 3 has been left with 2 fully capped brown QCs after knocking the rest. Hive 4, no QCs left and coukdnt find any VQs. Didn't touch rest of hives.
 
What advice, if you go through my last few threads you'll see there isn't much in the way of advice.


Do you keep notes for each hive/nuc?
Proper notes made at the time you go in.
 
There have been a lot of queen problems so far this year mate.
Empty queen cells, some with just food in and also people finding queens with dwv. Don't be surprised if some don't hatch out .
I took about 14 qc down in a colony last weekend and half were empty.
 
There have been a lot of queen problems so far this year mate.
Empty queen cells, some with just food in and also people finding queens with dwv. Don't be surprised if some don't hatch out .
I took about 14 qc down in a colony last weekend and half were empty.

Yes and IG's problem has been exacerbated because he made a botch of an AS, then had to leave them for some time without any further intervention (for a variety of personal reasons) and events in the colonies just overtook his knowledge. It's not helped by the fact that advice (as always in beekeeping) is mixed .. usually each plan is a good one on its own - but mixing up plans from two or more sources can make matters worse - certainly, it got so complicated that I could not begin to understand what HE had done, let alone what the bees were up to !

He's got them to a situation now where he has at least two viable colonies and two that, left alone, stand some chance of getting things going. His number 3 hive might be a problem as he's not sure there is a queen in there and after (most likely) a few castes he might be right. But even that can be resolved with a few eggs from a frame in one of his other hives.

He's been a bit better with detailing, succinctly, the state of his colonies in the last few posts and I think now, the best advice is to let the bees get on with it ... and see what happens.

Either way I think he would be better with just a couple of hives for next season - plenty of spare kit to do proper AS when needed and less colonies to consider and remember. He's not big on note taking which also make life interesting as dates/what was done are not always clear. With two hives and a simple record card that requires only the most basic of ticks and comments would serve him well - preferably kept in the top of the hive !

I think his heart is in his bees and I can forgive him a lot for that ... whether I can cope with another year of his beekeeping in its present form I'm not sure !! :hairpull:
 
He loves his bees that is obvious.
Should have stayed at 2 for a while longer really.
I'm finding all sorts of weird happenings with my own this year so no idea what he has found.

So far this year nosema ceranea and attempts at supercedure, crop spraying which reduced colony numbers a lot (scraping dead bees out of hives )and led to nosema again, queens vanishing suspect damage from nosema c as chalkbrood went crazy and crap weather . Interesting year so far. I'm looking forward to normal behaviour being resumed.
 
Hive 1 (nuc with queen from the kamikaze AS). Did a quick check without smoke. Queen laying. Eggs, larvare and brood. 1 charged QC. With this hive having 2 frames of bees, what can be done because if she swarms. Can an AS be done with so few bees and use both in 2 apideas. Tricky one this seeing as this queen was ready to swarm before i fecked it up, now she wants to swarm again but if i do an AS, theres very few flying bees. Ill leave that one for the more experienced beeks to answer.

Hive 2.( over winterred caste) Spoted the marked Q, shes laying great. On 7 frames of brood,larvae and eggs and rest of cells have been filled. Put a super on top but also found an egg in a sort of QC(looked sort of a QC but not 100% on it)so shes looking like shes going into swarm mode. Also knocked down 2 empty QCs along witn the one with egg in it. In hindsight i should have left it and marked the frame but was thinking it might be just a worker cell that looked differnt to the others. Bees where great to work with.
One thing i should mentiona about this hive, seeing as i have 4 inch insulation covering this hive, the brood nest is right against the wall of hive on both sides of frame(less on wall side of frame). Since ive added a super, the insulation is covering super now instead of brood box and i wont be able to make up more untill the wknd. Will this effect the brood much?

Hive 3. (One left with 2 capped QCs). Quick look at frame with the QCs., both hatched!! Still lots of bees but where more agitated than the hive2.

Hive 4. Took just over a 50p piece size of eggs from hive 2 and squashed in to a frame to see if theyll make a QC, if not, theres a virgin queen in there.


Hive5. 1 frame of bees taken from hive 3 in last inspection with QC for back up. Didnt open but seen some flying bees.
 
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Hive 1 (nuc with queen from the kamikaze AS). Did a quick check without smoke. Queen laying. Eggs, larvare and brood. 1 charged QC. With this hive having 2 frames of bees, what can be done because if she swarms. Can an AS be done with so few bees and use both in 2 apideas. Tricky one this seeing as this queen was ready to swarm before i fecked it up, now she wants to swarm again but if i do an AS, theres very few flying bees. Ill leave that one for the more experienced beeks to answer.

Hive 2.( over winterred caste) Spoted the marked Q, shes laying great. On 7 frames of brood,larvae and eggs and rest of cells have been filled. Put a super on top but also found an egg in a sort of QC(looked sort of a QC but not 100% on it)so shes looking like shes going into swarm mode. Also knocked down 2 empty QCs along witn the one with egg in it. In hindsight i should have left it and marked the frame but was thinking it might be just a worker cell that looked differnt to the others. Bees where great to work with.
One thing i should mentiona about this hive, seeing as i have 4 inch insulation covering this hive, the brood nest is right against the wall of hive on both sides of frame(less on wall side of frame). Since ive added a super, the insulation is covering super now instead of brood box and i wont be able to make up more untill the wknd. Will this effect the brood much?

Hive 3. (One left with 2 capped QCs). Quick look at frame with the QCs., both hatched!! Still lots of bees but where more agitated than the hive2.

Hive 4. Took just over a 50p piece size of eggs from hive 2 and squashed in to a frame to see if theyll make a QC, if not, theres a virgin queen in there.


Hive5. 1 frame of bees taken from hive 3 in last inspection with QC for back up. Didnt open but seen some flying bees.



What I think I should do!

Hive1, burn it!

Hive 2, burn it too

Hive 3, take jack hammer to it

Hive 5 and 4, well ya know the rest!!!




































.






Na only kidding ;)

Hive 1, buy an apidea and preform an AS since there's very few flying bees. Either that or just cut the queens head off and hope new virgin enjoies her we orgy and comes back well happy and starts popping.

Hive2, check in 6 days for capped QC, if capped next step is to preform an AS.

Hive3, leave until 2 weeks to see if virgin queen enjoyed her wee session like other VQ and laying, if not, I'm fecked! If hive 5 has mated, unite with this hive

Hive 4, if theres no queen cells, check for eggs. If there's QCs, leave one.

Hive 5, if no QC, unite with hive 3 but if hive 3 has queen, hope for the best this will build up enough for over wintering.

Ya or na?
 
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Hive 1 (nuc with queen from the kamikaze AS). Did a quick check without smoke. Queen laying. Eggs, larvare and brood. 1 charged QC. With this hive having 2 frames of bees, what can be done because if she swarms. Can an AS be done with so few bees and use both in 2 apideas. Tricky one this seeing as this queen was ready to swarm before i fecked it up, now she wants to swarm again but if i do an AS, theres very few flying bees. Ill leave that one for the more experienced beeks to answer.

Firstly - One CHARGED queen cell ... you saw a grub in there ? You say the queen is laying and there is BIAS - how much BIAS is there ? I would be surprised now that the queen is in swarm mode again but it looks a bit like it .. Do an AS (Properly) .. just use another Nuc - You have nothing to lose - if she swarms you've not got a lot left anyway.You can always add a frame of brood from Hive 2 if they need a bit more to build them up.

Hive 2.( over winterred caste) Spoted the marked Q, shes laying great. On 7 frames of brood,larvae and eggs and rest of cells have been filled. Put a super on top but also found an egg in a sort of QC(looked sort of a QC but not 100% on it)so shes looking like shes going into swarm mode. Also knocked down 2 empty QCs along witn the one with egg in it. In hindsight i should have left it and marked the frame but was thinking it might be just a worker cell that looked differnt to the others. Bees where great to work with.

A classic swarm cell is long and hangs away from the frame ... might just be one of those bits of random comb. Knocking down the empty queen cells will only promote them to building more if they are going to swarm. Leave them for a few days and look again .. if more queen cells built you will have to AS.

One thing i should mentiona about this hive, seeing as i have 4 inch insulation covering this hive, the brood nest is right against the wall of hive on both sides of frame(less on wall side of frame). Since ive added a super, the insulation is covering super now instead of brood box and i wont be able to make up more untill the wknd. Will this effect the brood much?

Should not hurt to do without a hive bonnet on the brood box at this time of the year... have you got a slab of insulation under the roof on top of the super because that is where it will do most good ?

Hive 3. (One left with 2 capped QCs). Quick look at frame with the QCs., both hatched!! Still lots of bees but where more agitated than the hive2.

Probably got at least one virgin in here ... leave them to get on with it .. you will either have a queen in there or not ..you will only tell when you start to see eggs. If they are agitated could be because you have an unmated queen in there .. or a virgin out on a mating flight. As you still have lots of bees in there it doesn't sound like you have lost any castes.


Hive 4. Took just over a 50p piece size of eggs from hive 2 and squashed in to a frame to see if theyll make a QC, if not, theres a virgin queen in there.

Leave it for a few days and check if they are building QC's and then you will know how the land lies ... not much else you can do.

Hive5. 1 frame of bees taken from hive 3 in last inspection with QC for back up. Didnt open but seen some flying bees.

Leave it be then ...

Well ... it's not an easy situation to diagnose so that's my best shot but I'll bow to anyone who thinks there is anything better that you can do at this moment in time. As I've said earlier - you are in damage limitation territory so yoru plan has to be to see where you have strongly laying queens as the season progresses and start thinking about combining the weaker hives with them to get down to a level that you can manage and that will stand some chance of getting through winter.
 
Hive 1 (nuc with queen from the kamikaze AS). Did a quick check without smoke. Queen laying. Eggs, larvare and brood. 1 charged QC. With this hive having 2 frames of bees, what can be done because if she swarms. Can an AS be done with so few bees and use both in 2 apideas. Tricky one this seeing as this queen was ready to swarm before i fecked it up, now she wants to swarm again but if i do an AS, theres very few flying bees. Ill leave that one for the more experienced beeks to answer.

Firstly - One CHARGED queen cell ... you saw a grub in there ? You say the queen is laying and there is BIAS - how much BIAS is there ? I would be surprised now that the queen is in swarm mode again but it looks a bit like it .. Do an AS (Properly) .. just use another Nuc - You have nothing to lose - if she swarms you've not got a lot left anyway.You can always add a frame of brood from Hive 2 if they need a bit more to build them up.




Hive 2.( over winterred caste) Spoted the marked Q, shes laying great. On 7 frames of brood,larvae and eggs and rest of cells have been filled. Put a super on top but also found an egg in a sort of QC(looked sort of a QC but not 100% on it)so shes looking like shes going into swarm mode. Also knocked down 2 empty QCs along witn the one with egg in it. In hindsight i should have left it and marked the frame but was thinking it might be just a worker cell that looked differnt to the others. Bees where great to work with.

A classic swarm cell is long and hangs away from the frame ... might just be one of those bits of random comb. Knocking down the empty queen cells will only promote them to building more if they are going to swarm. Leave them for a few days and look again .. if more queen cells built you will have to AS.

One thing i should mentiona about this hive, seeing as i have 4 inch insulation covering this hive, the brood nest is right against the wall of hive on both sides of frame(less on wall side of frame). Since ive added a super, the insulation is covering super now instead of brood box and i wont be able to make up more untill the wknd. Will this effect the brood much?

Should not hurt to do without a hive bonnet on the brood box at this time of the year... have you got a slab of insulation under the roof on top of the super because that is where it will do most good ?

Hive 3. (One left with 2 capped QCs). Quick look at frame with the QCs., both hatched!! Still lots of bees but where more agitated than the hive2.

Probably got at least one virgin in here ... leave them to get on with it .. you will either have a queen in there or not ..you will only tell when you start to see eggs. If they are agitated could be because you have an unmated queen in there .. or a virgin out on a mating flight. As you still have lots of bees in there it doesn't sound like you have lost any castes.


Hive 4. Took just over a 50p piece size of eggs from hive 2 and squashed in to a frame to see if theyll make a QC, if not, theres a virgin queen in there.

Leave it for a few days and check if they are building QC's and then you will know how the land lies ... not much else you can do.

Hive5. 1 frame of bees taken from hive 3 in last inspection with QC for back up. Didnt open but seen some flying bees.

Leave it be then ...

Well ... it's not an easy situation to diagnose so that's my best shot but I'll bow to anyone who thinks there is anything better that you can do at this moment in time. As I've said earlier - you are in damage limitation territory so yoru plan has to be to see where you have strongly laying queens as the season progresses and start thinking about combining the weaker hives with them to get down to a level that you can manage and that will stand some chance of getting through winter.


Here's pics of QC in hive 1. IMO its royal jelly in there.

IMG_20150611_181412033.jpg

IMG_20150611_181416739.jpg



Hive2, there's insulation all over this super, walls and roof as the insulation is the roof. Its tapped up with aluminum tape.


Hive 3, seeing as there's 2 hatched Qcs, can 2 virgins be in hive at same time or does one leave with a caste straight away or can one virgin kill the other. I know I've still plenty of bees and mightn't have lost a caste but thought I'd ask anyway.

Hive4. Will check 7 days from putting eggs in.

Hive5, will leave as suggested.



P.s, cheers for your advice skipper, really appreciated ;)
 
Hive 1 (nuc with queen from the kamikaze AS). Did a quick check without smoke. Queen laying. Eggs, larvare and brood. 1 charged QC. With this hive having 2 frames of bees, what can be done because if she swarms. Can an AS be done with so few bees and use both in 2 apideas. Tricky one this seeing as this queen was ready to swarm before i fecked it up, now she wants to swarm again but if i do an AS, theres very few flying bees. Ill leave that one for the more experienced beeks to answer.

Firstly - One CHARGED queen cell ... you saw a grub in there ? You say the queen is laying and there is BIAS - how much BIAS is there ? I would be surprised now that the queen is in swarm mode again but it looks a bit like it .. Do an AS (Properly) .. just use another Nuc - You have nothing to lose - if she swarms you've not got a lot left anyway.You can always add a frame of brood from Hive 2 if they need a bit more to build them up.


[/COLOR]


I had another think about this and will preform the AS tomorrow. There's 1 full frame of brood, eggs and larvae and this is where the QC is. Another frame has a 2 inch diameter of eggs and larvae and another frame with stores. Rest frames are empty.

When I do the AS, I'll leave queen in same position with new brood box dummied down to 4 or 5 frames with insulation. Will leave her in place with the 2inch diameter eggs/larvae and with another frame of brood from hive2 and feed to speed up comb manking (or just leave them without feed?)


Move the brood box(which is dummied down also) with QC to new location, add new foundation in place of frame taken out and feed with 1:1 to speed up comb making. Hope the virgin queens has a good mating flight and makes it back OK without them swallows getting hold of her.
 
If there is only 1 charged QC in Hive 1 maybe the bees know that summat is up with HM and they want to supercede her?
 
If there is only 1 charged QC in Hive 1 maybe the bees know that summat is up with HM and they want to supercede her?

Is there any way of telling its a supercedure or a swarm.
 
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Thanks for the link but in this case, its hard to tell because the brood is on 1 frame.

If only 1 QC on 1 frame of brood then probably even more reason to suspect supercedure as opposed to swarming
 
Another strange situation for me with this nuc QC but firstly, here's what I did today.

Hive 2, opened up and removed a frame of uncapped stores and frame of capped brood to put into the hive1 when I do the AS. Put frames if foundation in place of removed frames. Went through the hive quickly to check for QCs because was worried after the queen laid an egg in QC in last inspection. No new QCs. Closed hive.

Hive1, checked frame with QC from last inspection and to my surprise, there was nothing in it thou the bees have worked on it as itvwas larger than before. Had a closer look and there was a very small amount of jelly(if it was even jelly to begin with). I only noticed this after breaking it down. I was sitting scratching my nut thinking what to do next! It was either put the brood and store frame back in hive2 or just put it in this hive to help build up quicker. I choose the latter. Was this the right thing to do, I don't know but I done it thinking it was and still is.

Hive 4. Checked the frame with eggs I put in few days ago. Not one egg to be seen. I did kill a few while installing then into the comb but defo not them all so I don't know what's going on here. Hopefully there's a virgin in there somewhere. Only realised once I left the apiary that I should have installed a test frame for few days to know for certain there's a queen.

Hive5(hive with 1QC on frame). Had a swift inspection and QC has changed colour (if I remember correctly). It hasn't hatched and no bees near it which doesn't look good IMO
 
I haven't been posting around here for nearly 12 months and a quick scan and 3 or 4 threads in I find you appear looking for advice again in 2015 for what is a repeat car crash of 2014.

In your defence you represent a lot of beekeepers I know and that have left through frustration as their busy personal lives don't allow them time to read up on or manage bees and hives and their entire approach is open the hive and react spontaneously.

All of your issues have been generated by you and not by the bees.

You can take this what ever way you want, but you are not a beekeeper.

Anyway enough criticism, if you truly want to be a beekeeper be honest with yourself and ask can you spare the time?

There is no point in advising well this came up or that came up and I couldn't get to my bees until it was too late, there will always be something else, if your life doesn't allow you the time or flexibility then move onto hand gliding until it does.

If you know you can then educate yourself on the the basics, find and commit yourself a local club and in Mayo there are 3 and find experienced local beekeepers to look into your hives with you and they will offer advice. Devise a plan as to what you are going to do, be more explicit in the detail for your own benefit and so that you can remember. Read your notes before inspection and don't have a meltdown once you have opened a lid.

If you continue as you are you will find nobody here will offer you any further input :beatdeadhorse5:
 

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