Jimmys Mum
House Bee
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2012
- Messages
- 479
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Berkshire
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 13
I've put two of my stronger colonies on MAQs and the other 4 on Apilife Var this year. Today as it was quite bright and warm here, and the 7 day treatment was up, I took off the MAQS and took a look.
Hive 1 - boiling over with bees, no larvae but lots of sealed brood and the start of egg laying again. Couldn't see the marked 2013 queen but seeing eggs gives me confidence that all is well.
Hive 2 - also very very busy BUT no sign of any larvae or eggs OR my lovely marked 2012 queen. Instead they have traded her in for six blinkin sealed queen cells. These are over 4 frames and pretty centrally placed on the frame. Just to note, I checked this hive 5 days before MAQS went on and queen was there and laying well.
There's not a drone to be found in any of my colonies and the weather looks pants for the immediate future.....so.....rather than leave them to it when the odds are stacked against them. I'm inclined to break down every queen cell and see if I can buy in a mated queen that I hope to obtain from a very nice chap on the forum!
Does this sound like a sensible course of action? Is it an okay time to introduce a new queen? I really would rather not unite if at all possible. Being relatively new, I would appreciate some advice.
(Oh and just for interest, the varroa drop from the Apilife var after the first week was significantly higher than from the MAQS but I guess the post treatment monitoring will the the crucial indicator of how successful the treatments were.)
Thanks
JM
Hive 1 - boiling over with bees, no larvae but lots of sealed brood and the start of egg laying again. Couldn't see the marked 2013 queen but seeing eggs gives me confidence that all is well.
Hive 2 - also very very busy BUT no sign of any larvae or eggs OR my lovely marked 2012 queen. Instead they have traded her in for six blinkin sealed queen cells. These are over 4 frames and pretty centrally placed on the frame. Just to note, I checked this hive 5 days before MAQS went on and queen was there and laying well.
There's not a drone to be found in any of my colonies and the weather looks pants for the immediate future.....so.....rather than leave them to it when the odds are stacked against them. I'm inclined to break down every queen cell and see if I can buy in a mated queen that I hope to obtain from a very nice chap on the forum!
Does this sound like a sensible course of action? Is it an okay time to introduce a new queen? I really would rather not unite if at all possible. Being relatively new, I would appreciate some advice.
(Oh and just for interest, the varroa drop from the Apilife var after the first week was significantly higher than from the MAQS but I guess the post treatment monitoring will the the crucial indicator of how successful the treatments were.)
Thanks
JM