BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM.
Queen of drones
Charlie Bezzina:
I spent ages looking for the queen in the donating colony but I didn't find her. If it wasn't so windy today I would go back in that hive and do another search and maybe transplant one queen cell back again.
The 3 queen cells were in the middle of the frames so they might be supersedure cells?
I wish I had 3 colonies now. If I can sort this out without killing all my bees, I will try and create a nucleus and keep them too.
The15thMember:
--- Quote from: Charlie Bezzina on November 19, 2022, 07:52:49 pm ---I spent ages looking for the queen in the donating colony but I didn't find her. If it wasn't so windy today I would go back in that hive and do another search and maybe transplant one queen cell back again.
The 3 queen cells were in the middle of the frames so they might be supersedure cells?
I wish I had 3 colonies now. If I can sort this out without killing all my bees, I will try and create a nucleus and keep them too.
--- End quote ---
Don't worry, you'll have more colonies than you know what to do with before you know it! :grin: With only a few cells in the middle of frames, it is possible they are planning on superseding. If you can't get back in to give them a cell or two back, then just be sure to check on them in a few days to make certain they are drawing out more queens cells, which they should do if they have plenty of eggs and/or several-day-old larvae. When you were looking for the queen, did you see eggs? If you did, everything should work itself out.
Does anyone know the average day in larval development that workers elongate a queen cell? I'm digging around in my books, but I can't seem to find the answer. That many days from when you removed the queen cells would be a good time to go in and make sure they have made more.
Charlie Bezzina:
In the fluster of finding nothing but drone caps in the first hive I opened, I have to say I wasn't really thinking when I opened the second hive. As soon as I saw the queen cells and plenty of sealed brood in it I immediately thought to transfer the queen cells and neglected to pay attention to eggs...
Hopefully I can get in there and have another look in a few days. We are having 40kmh winds today. It is really blowing hard.
The15thMember:
--- Quote from: Charlie Bezzina on November 19, 2022, 08:34:30 pm ---In the fluster of finding nothing but drone caps in the first hive I opened, I have to say I wasn't really thinking when I opened the second hive. As soon as I saw the queen cells and plenty of sealed brood in it I immediately thought to transfer the queen cells and neglected to pay attention to eggs...
Hopefully I can get in there and have another look in a few days. We are having 40kmh winds today. It is really blowing hard.
--- End quote ---
That's all right, it's easy to get flustered when a problem arises. If the donor hive is strong, it's likely they have enough eggs and brood build another round of cells, even if they are superseding. They've probably already gotten started selecting the new larvae. :smile:
Charlie Bezzina:
I opened both hives again today, and am thinking I should probably refrain from interfering with the bees...
The donating hive had no eggs or larvae. (Is it my eyes that are no good??). The struggling hive had larvae, capped worker cells, capped drones and 2 capped queen cells 2 building queen cells (queen larva inside) and 2 opened (i.e queen came out) queen cells.
I have put the capped queen cells into the strong hive that I had originally stolen the queen cells from and I hope the bees in both hives are all good to fix things up from here.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version