Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: Finally found the queen  (Read 3405 times)

Offline crispy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 181
  • Gender: Male
Finally found the queen
« on: February 21, 2021, 08:08:38 am »
Hi all did an inspection today checking to see what stage the honey super is up to and i dont think there will be a harvest this year ,we still have two months of good weather left but the honey is only partially capped on most of the frames maybe next year ,
Anyway i want going to look at the brood box but thought while i am here i may as well ,lots of brood capped and larvea one frame seemed to have a heap of drone brood on it also found what i think is a superceedure cell so i got rid of that what was inside looked like a larvea but just looked like whitish fluid anyway its gone now , while inspecting the frames i managed for the first time see her majesty .
Now i believe i have carnolian bees not golden italians and the queen is not huge but she has a black abdomen , a lot of the queens i see have golden abdomens but hers was black no stripes like the others either she seems to be laying well and i have a lot of bees in the brood box plenty of pollen stores as well just about one whole frame anyway at least now i have seen her . 

Offline BeeMaster2

  • Administrator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 13489
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2021, 10:33:10 am »
Crispy,
When you find one supersedure cell, don?t remove it. Bees make supercedure cells when the queen is starting to fail. If you only have drone cells, especially in worker cells, that is an indication that she is at the end of her egg production.
Your bees are trying to save the hive before it is too late.
Jim Altmiller
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline crispy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 181
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2021, 04:25:09 am »
Hi jim the drone cells seemed to be on one frame only plenty of of capped worker brood and also larvea at around the 6 day mark ,you may be right i dont really know but if i only see drone brood being the end of febuary i may be in trouble as i have heard that queen breeders dont breed after febuary here .

Offline crispy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 181
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2021, 12:28:00 am »
Well did an  inspection after 5 weeks honey super just about the same wasnt going to do a brood check but curiosity got the better of me lucky i did . Opened up the brood box 5 weeks ago had capped brood and larvea looking good this time nothing at all apart from some drone brood and very little of that .
Not one larvea at all so now panic sets in bees are very agro attack me like never before had a carpet of bees on the back of my suit from head to boots .

What do i do ? So i ring the breeder and ask if he has any queens left and thankfully he had 4 mated queens so i organized a time to meet him and jump on the scooter and away , gives me info on how to introduce the new queen so back on the scooter for the two hour ride home with queeny on board , thursday morning i put her into the brood box and was told to check again after 10 days ,now i don't know if i killed her whether she died or the bees got rid of her or if what i thought was a orintation flight was actually a swarm anyway fingers crossed this works or the hive is finished .

Looks like you were right jim when i cut out that cell the queen was either gone or dead and they were making a new one , i was suppose to do the inspection 2 weeks ago but other things came up im just glad im a nosey little boy or the hive would have been finished , fingers crossed all will go well , havent had much luck with this bee keeping adventure so far .

Edited to delete miss spelled cuss word.
Jim Altmiller
« Last Edit: March 27, 2021, 01:28:30 pm by sawdstmakr »

Offline Ben Framed

  • Global Moderator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 12341
  • Mississippi Zone 7
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2021, 01:48:57 am »
Hang in there Crispy
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline crispy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 181
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2021, 06:02:05 am »
Well ben the worst case scenerio is the hive absconds or dies and i start again but ill know in 10 days ,here i was thinking about splits next year and if i should harvest honey all the time the bees are in dier peril of extinction .

Offline Bob Wilson

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1100
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2021, 08:41:32 am »
Crispy, I assume you have no nucs on hand. I have made up two 5 frame nucs, here in my 3rd summer of beekeeping, so that if that happens, I will have a spare queen on hand.

Offline Bee North

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 200
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2021, 05:25:46 pm »
Keep us updated mate and think about how much you have learned!

Offline crispy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 181
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #8 on: March 27, 2021, 09:34:51 pm »
Thanks for the offer bob but im in australia ,and yes have learned a lot ,if this works out i will attempt to do a walk away split next spring to stop any swarming and have also thought about ading a second brood box not sure on that one yet but i know of some who do do ths to stop swarming ,at the moment not even concerned about the honey if this works they can have the lot i just want my bees to survive .

Offline crispy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 181
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #9 on: April 04, 2021, 01:14:02 am »
Well 10 days have passed and i did the inspection and i have a laying queen ,brood and larvea on at least 50-60% of the frames , didnt see her not really looking for her to be honest but hope that she will keep laying enough to keep the hive alive they have 7 full frames of honey and are drawing and filling 2 more plus what they have down in the brood box  which is a lot so i dont think they will go hungry over winter .decided not to harvest any this year but come spring i may have to harvest some and add new frames .Will do one more inspection before locking the hive till spring been advised by the breeder to do this before april the 25 as it is renowned for being the start of cooler weather .

Offline Ben Framed

  • Global Moderator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 12341
  • Mississippi Zone 7
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #10 on: April 04, 2021, 01:30:43 am »
Good for you Crispy! You should be ok for now. I advise you heeding Bob Wilsons advise for future purposes. His advise is just plain good ole insurance . Maybe next season...   Keep up the good work!

Crispy, I assume you have no nucs on hand. I have made up two 5 frame nucs, here in my 3rd summer of beekeeping, so that if that happens, I will have a spare queen on hand.
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline crispy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 181
  • Gender: Male
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #11 on: April 04, 2021, 08:02:21 am »
yep will look into doing that in spring , now that they have a queen the temprement of the hive is entirely different hoping this queen will have a good temprement and i can work the hive easily , before it was at the stage where i thought about closing it up and walking away as they were out of control .One thing i have noticed is that after an inspection i seem to have an amount of dead bees round 20 or so i try to be as carefull as i can with them just wondering if this is normal ,i do have a certain amount die nearly every day but not so many ,today i found a number of dead bees on the queen excluder when i examined them it was a mix of worker and drones never seen it before today when i have done an inspection .   

Offline Ben Framed

  • Global Moderator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 12341
  • Mississippi Zone 7
Re: Finally found the queen
« Reply #12 on: April 04, 2021, 08:58:54 am »
yep will look into doing that in spring , now that they have a queen the temprement of the hive is entirely different hoping this queen will have a good temprement and i can work the hive easily , before it was at the stage where i thought about closing it up and walking away as they were out of control .One thing i have noticed is that after an inspection i seem to have an amount of dead bees round 20 or so i try to be as carefull as i can with them just wondering if this is normal ,i do have a certain amount die nearly every day but not so many ,today i found a number of dead bees on the queen excluder when i examined them it was a mix of worker and drones never seen it before today when i have done an inspection .

It depends on which side of the excluder the drones were on from your previous inspection. If the drones were trapped above the excluder, they would  not be able get out and they will eventually die. Could this be part of your situation?
« Last Edit: April 04, 2021, 09:32:46 am by Ben Framed »
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.