Boy this Wally Shaw Modified Snelgrove 2 is not for the faint of heart!

[TryingToLetThemBee]

So I tried this for the first time with a vertical split. (The method is basically an AS but the Q stays in the parent as it moves, with all the cells.) Checked back a week later and all good in the AS: tore down 9 EQCs. But on the way down through the stack, could not find the Q but there were lots of the original swarm cells, all now sealed of course. One I tore down; it was damn near ripe. Left three good-looking ones. All the while muttering about WBKA propaganda: those blinking cells were supposed to be gone, not a blinking swarm!

I left the top, parent colony, open while I checked another and flipped the doors on the Snelgrove board. One last check for the Q and there she was. Put her and her frame (bit of padding), checking NO QCs, into the swarm and reassembled.

I think I aged ten years. But for now, it seems to have worked. And of course the parent now has a serious jump on things. Fat, mature cells and full demographics.

Let's see what next week brings...

 

[Eyeman]

So I tried this for the first time with a vertical split. (The method is basically an AS but the Q stays in the parent as it moves, with all the cells.) Checked back a week later and all good in the AS: tore down 9 EQCs. But on the way down through the stack, could not find the Q but there were lots of the original swarm cells, all now sealed of course. One I tore down; it was damn near ripe. Left three good-looking ones. All the while muttering about WBKA propaganda: those blinking cells were supposed to be gone, not a blinking swarm!

I left the top, parent colony, open while I checked another and flipped the doors on the Snelgrove board. One last check for the Q and there she was. Put her and her frame (bit of padding), checking NO QCs, into the swarm and reassembled.

I think I aged ten years. But for now, it seems to have worked. And of course the parent now has a serious jump on things. Fat, mature cells and full demographics.

Let's see what next week brings...

Depends how many foragers you get to vacate that moved Q+ colony. The more you weaken that colony the more likely they will tear down those QC's.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I did some last year but horizontally, taking the brood frames with queen well away. It helps having good weather too. It’s not something I would try in desperation because I had found queen cells in the middle of a bad spell. Remember if the flying bees are not flying they will not return to where their old home used to be.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I did some last year but horizontally, taking the brood frames with queen well away. It helps having good weather too. It’s not something I would try in desperation because I had found queen cells in the middle of a bad spell. Remember if the flying bees are not flying they will not return to where their old home used to be.

Great point!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Great point!

If I have to AS and weather is a bummer for a good few days I nuc the Queen. I had to AS that way earlier this spring and the re queening colony with no brood to raise has three supers of spring blossom honey. Meanwhile the nuc’d queen has laid away and is in a full hive.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

If I have to AS and weather is a bummer for a good few days I nuc the Queen. I had to AS that way earlier this spring and the re queening colony with no brood to raise has three supers of spring blossom honey. Meanwhile the nuc’d queen has laid away and is in a full hive.

I suppose the risk of leaving more or less the whole kit and caboodle Q- on the original site is cast swarms so you have to thin QCs I would have thought. As per another current thread that is not risk-free (although you still have the original Q I suppose).

 

[Erichalfbee]

I suppose the risk of leaving more or less the whole kit and caboodle Q- on the original site is cast swarms so you have to thin QCs I would have thought. As per another current thread that is not risk-free (although you still have the original Q I suppose).

Oh yes. You have to be on top of queen cells.