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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #8497  by Steve 1972
 13 Aug 2020, 18:27
Chrisbarlow wrote:
13 Aug 2020, 17:33
Making up nucs with queen cells
In my neck of the woods i would be pushing my luck trying to make nucs from Queen cells at this time of the year..i buy mated Queens Mid July to the beginning of August and i get them strong enough to go through winter.. Queen cells emerging and getting mated would be a big gamble for me..but if you do it each year you know what your area can deliver weather wise you have it nailed.. ;)
 #8506  by huntsman.
 14 Aug 2020, 15:51
Gave mine light syrup (1 litre of water to 0.5 kg sugar,) about 15 metres away from my four hives to discourage robbing.

Supers are off. Not a good year here.

I'll do this every third day for now, little and often.

This is just to tide them along until I feed each hive strong syrup after mid September.

They are all over it, like snuff at a wake.
 #8509  by Steve 1972
 15 Aug 2020, 21:04
I know now i have a good flow on from seeing the bees today and i also know they have plenty of room to make honey so i left the lot of them well alone on this inspection..
That give me time to put three brood boxes together with drawn frames..some with stores some ready for egg's ..the reason being three of the four Nucs i have are desperate for more space so weather dependent i will give them full brood boxes over the nest couple of days..
 #8515  by Steve 1972
 16 Aug 2020, 16:54
I had to put three of four six frame nucs into full brood boxes today..two if which where on five frames of brood and the third one had started filling the sixth frame with brood..each hive got two frames of pollen and honey stores and the rest of the space was filled with empty drawn comb so hopefully i will not have to feed them for a while yet and the Queens can continue laying for a little bit longer..don't laugh at my landing boards as i had no wood at hand to make any so i used my for sale signs that i use for making inspection boards..i thought i would do each one different which may help with drifting and orientation flight's..
Steve.

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 #8530  by Chrisbarlow
 19 Aug 2020, 13:02
Making supers up last night only to realise that I then couldn't find the super frames to make up and put into the boxes much to my annoyance!
 #8535  by AdamD
 20 Aug 2020, 09:19
Chrisbarlow wrote:
19 Aug 2020, 13:02
Making supers up last night only to realise that I then couldn't find the super frames to make up and put into the boxes much to my annoyance!
Is your season still going Chris? Mine has ended unless a little ivy comes in.
And I have plenty of spare supers at the moment. Once cleaned out by the bees they go in a freezer for a couple of days to ensure there are no wax moths lurking, before storage.

There has been a shortage of super foundation so I hope you have enough - Thornes have only been selling premiere and plastic recently.
 #8536  by NigelP
 20 Aug 2020, 15:14
Made up a couple of queenless nucs for some Island mating queens arriving today/tomorrow.
Had a Lazarus queen....from one of the nuc's. Wanted her to re queen another nuc a couple of days ago that appears to have lost it's queen on a mating flight or whatever....but wasn't sure if a virgin still present or not....so not adding expensive queens to possible virgin inhabited hive.
When I picked her up and put her in the cage she went stiff as a board, dead to all appearances. I thought I must have handled her too firmly, but remembering they occasionally go into shock when handled I left her in the cage inside the nuc. And LO and BEHOLD the dead have risen like Lazarus. Phew.......
Removed some brood from a hive with a recent marked and clipped queen. First frame found a new unmarked unclipped queen....plenty of eggs....Supersedure???
But boy have they (and every other hive) become defensive....
A few ghost bees, so balsam is all they have left at moment.
 #8539  by AdamD
 21 Aug 2020, 13:49
I've had a couple of Lazarus queens - not for a while mind. Quite a surprise when it first happens!

I picked up a queen to mark her yesterday. I KNEW she was too young but I had my marking pen in my pocket so I thought i'd give it a go. As I let her go she flew off the comb and into the air. The procedure here is to close up the hive quickly and step away. Especially so as I was squatting in front of a mini-nuc and in her way. She made a different sound to workers - closer to a drone and I could hear her flying around. After a few moments of standing to one side, I saw her zig-zagging towards the entrance, slowly approaching as if she wasn't sure whether to go in or not. Then she flew off and I though I'd lost her. She circled around to check her bearings, I guess, and came back again, hovering around the entrance for what seemed ages before she eventually landed and walked in. Phew!
 #8542  by NigelP
 21 Aug 2020, 18:10
Phew indeed....and well observed.
Just had 2 Keld Brandstrup Island Mated queens arrived today. Now in cages inside queenless nucs.....will remove tab in 3 days time and pray heavily.....they are not cheap but IMHO worth every euro.
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