scuttlefish
Field Bee
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2012
- Messages
- 548
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Tipperary, Ireland
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6
Does this sound like the colony is tring to supercede?
One of my hives (which was the Q + 1 frame brood + foragers part of an AS a few months ago) was building up well until recently but stalled at six frames of brood and has since declined in terms of brood to maybe two full frames and a couple of patchy ones.
At an inspection a little over a week ago I noted four frames of BIAS and two queen cells (which I duly broke down on the basis they were Q+). On inspection yesterday there were several QCs (charged, with larvae, one or two sealed, mostly on the face of the frames) and while there was BIAS what unsealed brood (larvae or eggs) there were had a patchy distribution across the frames and a large amount of former brood area remained empty. By comparison, my other two Q+ hives have full frames of BIAS in the same apiary.
At the time I broke down the QCs (again thinking BIAS = Q+) and moved the top super (empty) to the bottom of the super stack in case they were feeling congested (despite the half-empty brood box) as they were under three full supers, on the assumption that they were trying to swarm.
However, I'm thinking now that the poor laying pattern from a previously good queen, at a time when other hives have full brood, suggests that the queen (mated last year) has failed for some reason and is being superceded. Given that she's still laying eggs, I'm also assuming that the workers haven't stopped feeding her to get her flight-ready for swarming.
As the queen has been good up to now I don't want to replace her unnecessarily, but I need the colony to build up a lot more to be viable going into the winter and would rather re-queen sooner with a proven layer from a breeder than later or (if they do supercede) hope the new virgin will mate okay.
Any thoughts?
One of my hives (which was the Q + 1 frame brood + foragers part of an AS a few months ago) was building up well until recently but stalled at six frames of brood and has since declined in terms of brood to maybe two full frames and a couple of patchy ones.
At an inspection a little over a week ago I noted four frames of BIAS and two queen cells (which I duly broke down on the basis they were Q+). On inspection yesterday there were several QCs (charged, with larvae, one or two sealed, mostly on the face of the frames) and while there was BIAS what unsealed brood (larvae or eggs) there were had a patchy distribution across the frames and a large amount of former brood area remained empty. By comparison, my other two Q+ hives have full frames of BIAS in the same apiary.
At the time I broke down the QCs (again thinking BIAS = Q+) and moved the top super (empty) to the bottom of the super stack in case they were feeling congested (despite the half-empty brood box) as they were under three full supers, on the assumption that they were trying to swarm.
However, I'm thinking now that the poor laying pattern from a previously good queen, at a time when other hives have full brood, suggests that the queen (mated last year) has failed for some reason and is being superceded. Given that she's still laying eggs, I'm also assuming that the workers haven't stopped feeding her to get her flight-ready for swarming.
As the queen has been good up to now I don't want to replace her unnecessarily, but I need the colony to build up a lot more to be viable going into the winter and would rather re-queen sooner with a proven layer from a breeder than later or (if they do supercede) hope the new virgin will mate okay.
Any thoughts?
