Canary Honey
House Bee
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2014
- Messages
- 127
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Norwich
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 2
My strongest hive has built up rapidly this spring, occupying most of the deep and two shallows with mostly brood but also some stores, I knew to keep a close eye on this one for swarming. This is a one year old queen, daughter of a swarm that came to me, always been a good layer but we have never seen her so hasn’t been marked. I don’t use a queen excluder, leaving them to go ‘free range’.
About a week ago there were a number of queen cups, so I add another shallow with partially drawn foundation (best I could offer)
Last night we checked on their progress, there were numerous Q-cups with larvae and two sealed. In a minor half panic and not sure how to split the invisible queen I decided to take a frame with a sealed queen cell and some bees to a new hive, hopefully leaving the old queen in the original hive.
Obviously many of the bees in the new hive have returned to the original.
Obviously the queen cell is under attended and she has chilled and become brain damaged, at least.
Obviously the original queen and workers still have swarming on their minds, if they haven’t flown already. Judging by population I don’t think so (can’t see the queen)
What should I have done and what should I do now?
About a week ago there were a number of queen cups, so I add another shallow with partially drawn foundation (best I could offer)
Last night we checked on their progress, there were numerous Q-cups with larvae and two sealed. In a minor half panic and not sure how to split the invisible queen I decided to take a frame with a sealed queen cell and some bees to a new hive, hopefully leaving the old queen in the original hive.
Obviously many of the bees in the new hive have returned to the original.
Obviously the queen cell is under attended and she has chilled and become brain damaged, at least.
Obviously the original queen and workers still have swarming on their minds, if they haven’t flown already. Judging by population I don’t think so (can’t see the queen)
What should I have done and what should I do now?