To leave alone or not?

[King Scavenger]

I had a new swarm into one of my empty hives, After a few days the clipped queen wanted to leave but she ended up under the hive with a lot of her bees. She was picked up, with the bees, and placed into another empty hive, plus a box of her last hive. She is now working hard. The hive she came from was checked and all queen cells but one, were removed to allow the bees to bring on a new queen. One other bee keeper has told me to leave them for 3 weeks, before I open the hive and another bee keeper has told me to open and check the hive for any more queen cells. Who is right!!

 

[For want of a better word]

2 weeks is about right for a virgin to be raised and given good weather... mate, come back and start egg laying.

Only drawback is that you may have a swarmy bee line... but this season any thing seems to go!

Good luck

Yeghes da

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I had a new swarm into one of my empty hives, After a few days the clipped queen wanted to leave but she ended up under the hive with a lot of her bees. She was picked up, with the bees, and placed into another empty hive, plus a box of her last hive. She is now working hard. The hive she came from was checked and all queen cells but one, were removed to allow the bees to bring on a new queen. One other bee keeper has told me to leave them for 3 weeks, before I open the hive and another bee keeper has told me to open and check the hive for any more queen cells. Who is right!!

Go in after three or four days to check if they have built any more QC's then leave them for a good few weeks

 

[King Scavenger]

Go in after three or four days to check if they have built any more QC's then leave them for a good few weeks

Many thanks. Its been 4 days so I will check today.

 

[King Scavenger]

Many thanks. Its been 4 days so I will check today.

Yup!! Found 12 qc's all removed and the one we left is capped and not hatched yet. Should I check again in a few day or leave them to it?

 

[rayt]

Being a inexperienced (and stupid) beekeeper I find it helpful to mark it out on a queen lifecycle to help understand whats happening or could happen.
If its capped then I would say leave it until after its emerged which is around day 16 just to see if the qc has been opened.
Day 27ish to 37ish should be mated so around then would then be checking for eggs.

Feel free to ridicule my ideas!!

 

[Obee1]

there is a good leaflet by wally Shaw about re queening.

http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uplo...y-That-Is-Requeening-Itself-by-Wally-Shaw.pdf

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yup!! Found 12 qc's all removed and the one we left is capped and not hatched yet. Should I check again in a few day or leave them to it?

Personally I would leave them now until a couple of weeks after expected emergence - some would go in again in another four days to check for more QC's but I'm happy to let the bees sort themselves out from this point on