The bees just don't read the same books as us!

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SnooziSuzi

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The bees just don't read the same books as us!
« on: July 06, 2018, 13:52 »
Inspected my 8 week old colony 2 Sundays ago.  2018 queen, very productive and a lovely calm colony.

Nothing unusual on that inspection, 8 out of 11 brood frames drawn out and in use, 1 frame drawn but not yet used and 2 undrawn.

I added a super with undrawn foundation as I could see they were packing honey into one of the BS frames, located HRH and knocked down 4 play cups.  Everything looked fine.

Then it came to the next inspection the following Sunday.  8/12 supers filled ! 25 charged QC's and a further 4 cups!

They hadn't yet started to draw one of the undrawn BS frames and still had super frames to draw out.  All of this had happened during this hot dry spell we're having and I had (ignorantly) assumed there wouldn't be any nectar available to them.

Suddenly I needed to order a second hive as I knew an AS was needed but since the person I lent my original hive to denies any knowledge of having it and I thought I'd have more time I didn't have the pieces to hand. 

They clearly were determined to swarm and I didn't want them to do this into a neighbours tree or eaves so I arranged to move them to a new location 4 miles away and had to do a bigger AS there.  This was done on Wednesday just gone because I had to wait for delivery and had to make up the boxes and frames first.

Looked into the first hive; all calm, no QC's.  Queen is present and laying and everything looks dandy  :wacko:

Can't wait to get there this Sunday to make sure their urge to fly has been abated with the new brood frames I added, and I hope they've started to raise a new queen in the AS hive.

QUESTION:  I'm going to leave the AS hive alone this weekend, but how soon can/should I leave it before checking for a laying Queen?

TIA,
Su.

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ghost61

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Re: The bees just don't read the same books as us!
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2018, 06:17 »
Two to three weeks.  That should give them time to nurture a queen cell (or two), for her to emerge and mate and for you to then see either eggs, or eggs and capped brood. Assume that drones were present in the AS. 

Despite the so called June gap, the bees are very busy.  Harvested yesterday, 17lbs, and will need to clear another super next week on Hive 2.  Hive 1 was queenless, as I culled after three swarms and given that I was off on hols, I didn't want any issues.  Came back, found hive with no brood and angry guards who chased me everywhere!  Saw a queen cup though, crossed fingers and sure enough three weeks later, frames are filling with capped brood.  I put a super on as they had filled two brood frames with honey, that should help with the urge to swarm.


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SnooziSuzi

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Re: The bees just don't read the same books as us!
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2018, 11:06 »
Thanks Ghost61.

I know I did it badly, but circumstances at the time forced my hand.  The brood frames I put in the new hive DID have uncharged cups and had eggs (as well as larvae and capped brood) so I'm hoping they have taken that opportunity.

If the worst comes to the worst and they don't make a new queen I'll reunite them but with a double brood chamber seeing as my queen just wants to lay, lay, lay!



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