Just as I thought I was becoming a better beekeeper I have realised beekeeping is even more of a challenge than I thought.
The Findings
- Hive Two: 5 Queen swarm cells (capped)
- Hives Three & Four: The two new colonies (which started with a couple of frames of bees and 2 Queen swarm cells in each on 13th April – i.e. 5 weeks ago) had no sign of a queen and no eggs (except for a squeal which I will talk about in my next post).
I found the Queen in Hive Two:
The Analysis
- Hive Two: Capped Queen cells means the hive is ready to swarm
- Hive Three & Four: It’s been quite cold over the last 5 weeks and might not have reach the essential 16C in the critical couple of weeks after the Queens hatched out
Inspecting the poly nuc hive:
The Manipulations
- Placed frames from Hive Two with Queen cells into the Queenless Hives Three & Four
- Made sure that just one Queen swarm cell went into each hive
The Reality
- My dreams of three hives bursting with bees for the second nectar flow are rapidly fading. Producing decent amounts of honey (25lb+ per hive) is going to be a challenge
The Hope
- Hive Two is going to need an artificial swarm – and hence reduce it’s ability to provide surplus honey but they have 6 weeks to build their numbers back up – it has a chance of making honey – but the Queen is 3 years old – will she be up to it?
- Hives Three & Four – With 6 weeks to go before the start of the 2nd nectar flow, my hopes are that the new Queens hatch in 1 week, mate within 1 week and lay 2,000 eggs a day. The eggs take 3 weeks to hatch out and 2 weeks before they become foraging bees. Hopefully, by mid-July they might start bringing in some surplus honey
- I could combine two of the hives at some point in order to improve strength of a colony
The Lessons
- I threw precious nectar out of the cells when I shook the bees off the frames with the queen cells. I was more careful with the 2nd frame
Grateful for any thoughts on …
- What I did – placing queen cells in the other hives
- My plans – to artificially swarm hive 2
- Thoughts on combining two 14×12 (jumbo) brood boxes at future date – are they too big?
Read More
- Where we are in the Beekeeping Calendar
- Key beekeeping activities of the moment: Varroa Management / Swarm Management
- One year ago in the apiary: Life Without Bees
- Two years ago in the apiary: Bees on the outside of the hive – is this normal?
- Hive Record Cards: Hive Two, Hive Three, Poly Nuc
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Hi Roger,
Oh the trials of swarm season!
Are you absolutely sure there were no queens remaining in hives 3 & 4?
A test frame in each would answer that question within 4 days and prevent any remaining un-mated queen destroying the sealed queen cells you have just added.
I’m surprised that hive 2 has not swarmed already if there were sealed queen cells. The fact that you found the queen suggests they may be trying to supersede; sometimes not easy to tell the difference.
good luck, Mike
Thanks Mike.
Hive Two swarmed today. I’ll write about this, this week (I have started putting up videos and photos under Hive One and Hive Two Record Cards.). So I guess they weren’t supercedure cells?
Any harm done in putting the queen cells in hives 3 and 4?
Also – I posted a similar question on the BBKA Discussion Board and got a similar response to yours. I have added this to my Piping, Squealing, Hissing In The Hive Post.
I just need some good weather to have another look and make a better assessment.
Hi Roger, if it’s any consolation my bees (at least one of the two hives) seems to be Queenless despite my best efforts and my bee mentor (50 years and counting) has lost 2 swarms this year out of his 3 hives. Seems like the best laid plans…Simon
I currently have 4 hives. 1 (the recent swarm) definitely has a Queen, and the other 3 don’t at present. I’ll find out what has happened in a few weeks time. In the meantime, it’s very useful to have 1 Queen so I/we can take her eggs and put them in our Queen-less hives if needed.