Post-AS inspections

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
T

Terry G

House Bee
Joined
Feb 1, 2013
Messages
170
Reaction score
0
Location
Kent
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
2. No, 3. No, 2 again
Well, back from hols in North Wales (very nice, thanks for asking) so it's 8 days since carrying out the Artificial Swarm. Pollen is going into both hives and we've just moved the Q- hive to the other side of the Q+ one to bleed off the flying bees. So what should I be doing next in terms of inspections (bearing in mind I can't do anything before Friday)?
I plan to check the Q+ bunch to make sure they've not produced a cheeky queen cell or two, but do I just leave the Q- colony to get on with whatever it is that queenless bees do, or should I have a quick shufty in there as well?
 
I seem to remember you did this on the day you went on holiday?

You are right in part, and you want to check the Q+ hive to check that she is still there and they never built any more queen cells when you were away.

And you need to go into the Q- hive to see how many more queen cells, they have built after you presumably left just one or two? Or perhaps non after you removed them on a previous inspection? However, I bet they were busy in the first four days after the AS and you could have quite a few and perhaps cast swarms come the weekend or if you left QC’s during your AS any day.

Just to add or no cast swarms and the bees allow a virgin to kill the other queens.
 
Last edited:
Tom Bick said:
I seem to remember you did this on the day you went on holiday?

You are right in part, and you want to check the Q+ hive to check that she is still there and they never built any more queen cells when you were away.

And you need to go into the Q- hive to see how many more queen cells, they have built after you presumably left just one or two? Or perhaps non after you removed them on a previous inspection? However, I bet they were busy in the first four days after the AS and you could have quite a few and perhaps cast swarms come the weekend or if you left QC’s during your AS any day.

Just to add or no cast swarms and the bees allow a virgin to kill the other queens.
Click to expand...

Thanks Tom.
In your last sentence you imply that even if there are multiple QCs it doesn't necessarily mean they will swarm - but what is the likelihood? (I appreciate that we're probably in lengths of pieces of string territory here).
BTW I put 2 litres of one-to-one on the Q- hive straight after the AS and the feeder was bone dry when we got back from holiday yesterday.
 
You need to get into the Q- half and reduce to one sealed queen cell. This is assuming when you made the split in the first place you didn't leave any sealed queen cells, only open ones, otherwise they may well have swarmed already with the first emerged virgin.

And yes check out the Q+ half too. The AS is not 100% reliable, even when done by the book (in fact I'd say it's not reliable at all hence I use clipped queens)
 
Terry G said:
Thanks Tom.
In your last sentence you imply that even if there are multiple QCs it doesn't necessarily mean they will swarm - but what is the likelihood? (I appreciate that we're probably in lengths of pieces of string territory here).
BTW I put 2 litres of one-to-one on the Q- hive straight after the AS and the feeder was bone dry when we got back from holiday yesterday.
Click to expand...

If you have multiple QS's the bees may allow the first queen to emerge from the cell to go and kill the other queens and how much easier for us if they did that all the time.

But they are likely to hold the virgins in the cells keeping the virgins apart and then release them and perhaps two at a time and swarm with a queen, this could happen every day for a few days until the bees think that's enough and your hive could be very low on remaining bees.
 
Tom Bick said:
If you have multiple QS's the bees may allow the first queen to emerge from the cell to go and kill the other queens and how much easier for us if they did that all the time.

But they are likely to hold the virgins in the cells keeping the virgins apart and then release them and perhaps two at a time and swarm with a queen, this could happen every day for a few days until the bees think that's enough and your hive could be very low on remaining bees.
Click to expand...

That's an alarming thought!
I left 2 new QCs when I did the AS 8 days ago, which was 2 days after I had destroyed all the QCs, so they probably had no eggs in them (not ideal I know, but it was either that or leaving them until this week when I got back from holiday, by which time they would probably have swarmed). By my (admittedly unreliable) reckoning I've still got another week before any queens emerge, so inspecting on Friday should be ok. I think.
 
You can (and often do) have emerging virgins 10 days after you've destroyed all queen cells. These would be emergency queen cells made from a 3 day old worker larva, sealed 2 days after that and emerging after a further 8 days = 10 days. You don't have as much time as you think. This is why the standard approach for AS is leave only open queen cells and inspect again 8 days later to reduce to one sealed queen cell. Those queen cells would be preferable to emergency cells although are liable to emerge a bit quicker i.e. after 8 days.
 
Chris B said:
You can (and often do) have emerging virgins 10 days after you've destroyed all queen cells. These would be emergency queen cells made from a 3 day old worker larva, sealed 2 days after that and emerging after a further 8 days = 10 days. You don't have as much time as you think. This is why the standard approach for AS is leave only open queen cells and inspect again 8 days later to reduce to one sealed queen cell. Those queen cells would be preferable to emergency cells although are liable to emerge a bit quicker i.e. after 8 days.
Click to expand...

Friday it is, then, and not a day too soon by the sound of it.
Hope it's not a day too late!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Floyd
Delayed Inspection
2
Replies
28
Views
1K
Sutty
S
O
Swarms, queens, splits
Replies
12
Views
1K
ericbeaumont
ericbeaumont
A
Queenless Colony
Replies
10
Views
669
ericbeaumont
ericbeaumont
Garry R
Looking back
Replies
13
Views
526
jenkinsbrynmair
jenkinsbrynmair
F
What would you do ?
Replies
5
Views
1K
fullframe45
F

Latest posts

Back
Top