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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #4148  by Japey Edge
 18 Jul 2019, 22:25
Hi again everyone!

As per usual I am riding high after a great inspection. Not everything was ideal but I was impressed by what I saw, although as I type this all out and retrace my steps I realise some things I did wrong. I'll do a brief summary with the questions I have, then if you fancy reading the rest I'll elaborate.

Summary:
Colony 1: no brood, virgin queen somewhere maybe? This one was artificially swarmed and then a caste swarm left
Colony 2: oldest Queen (red 2018), BIAS, growing, still to complete some frames
Colony 3: micro swarm. Angry. Growing a bit. Saw some BIAS.
Colony 4: big swarm. Found queen, big. Built 10/11 brood frames of comb AND 9/11 shallow frames in 6 days. 3 frames of eggs.
Mini mating hive: BIAS, plenty of capped brood. Beautiful laying pattern

Questions:
Colony 1: should I keep an eye on them? Are they at risk of being hopelessly queenless? Saw queen last week. Not today though
Colony 3: getting tetchy. I'm trying to decide whether to splat angry Thirsk queen and replace with Mini mating hive queen or just shake them out into the grass
Colony 4: Is this fast for comb building? Is the queen a laying machine by doing at least 3 frames of eggs in 6 days?

The Inspection:

So colony 1 was my first colony, even if the original queen is now in Nuc 2. I saw a queen last week, piping away. I took down all remaining QCs as I want no further swarms. I couldn't find the queen today though. Maybe she was gobbled on her mating flight. Any tips on how to monitor and ascertain the situation would be greatly appreciated. Thankfully I have a decent queen in the mini mating hive.

Colony 2 is slow going, just because I'm impatient. Saw no QCs this week though. Also noticed BIAS. I just want them to grow. Hmm. Now I'm thinking of uniting them with colony 1 since they were all one family anyway. Saves my new mini mating queen.

Colony 3, I wanted them to grow so much but they're just not doing anything. I'm not sure I'll get them strong enough come winter. They're pretty tetchy too and were the only colony to give me grief (flighty, flying at me etc.) despite the fact I was quickest with them. I gave them a drawn frame of comb (no bees) from the super swarm as well. Ungrateful little rats.

Colony 4 is my new super duper colony. They're the big swarm I caught last week and I couldn't help smile. My reaction to finding the queen was a smile and "Hello darling" :lol: she's a beauty. I'm impressed by their amazing comb-building, pollen gathering, honey*storing and her egg-laying. But I want to know what the experienced ones think about this progress in 6 days. Queen wasn't marked either. I'm sure that doesn't matter but still. I marked her green as it's the only colour I have. But I hadn't even thought she could be older. Oops.

Mini mating hive - what a way to end the inspection. I'll put some pictures up but wow they've done so well
That queen is laying nicely and they're such a good little colony. I'll have to start thinking of where to stick her soon.

I think my options for mini mating queen are:
Give to queenless colony 1 - providing they're deffo queenless and not just with a virgin
Give to micro swarm (3) - providing they're not just worthy of shaking out
Supersede last year's queen in nuc 2. I'm not sure that's ideal though really I just wanted to table a third option.

For anyone who has had the patience to read through this, please type out your thoughts, experienced/inexperienced I would like to read them! :D
 #4151  by thewoodgatherer
 19 Jul 2019, 07:35
Re colony 1 you don't give time scale, new queens can take a few weeks to get matted and finally start laying. I have had two this year take three weeks before I could find any eggs and in one case even tried a test frame which was negative. If its been more than a couple of weeks from your expected emergence I would be looking for the demeanour of the bees and also things like polished cells ready to lay in. If bees seem agitated and no evidence of reading for laying then try a test frame.
 #4153  by Patrick
 19 Jul 2019, 09:18
Re 1. Agree with Woodgatherer

Re 2. Sound fine. Not sure if history - was this the AS split with 1? Maybe colony left with an uneven age distribution of workers ie foragers gone with AS and so a bit held back until that balance reestablishes?

Re 3Micro swarm sounds trouble. If 1 is indeed queen right then you have a spare queen (whoo hoo!) you need to move on so and can try a requeen. You are a lot north of me mind and season is getting on for micro colonies. If you had another use for the queen, I would simply kill nasty queen and just shake that box out and remove it. If no other use for queen, give it a go. You can waste a lot of time on small poor colonies. This time of year I am starting to plan simplifying things for winter. Treating and feeding lots of half chances is more work than I need.

Re 4 Big swarm sounds just fine. Don’t be surprised if they suddenly try to supersede the queen though. It seems fashionable these days. By the sound of it it’s a later prime swarm so could well be an older queen.

Down here swarm season has passed pretty much. Sounds a pretty good spread Jazz.
 #4156  by AdamD
 19 Jul 2019, 11:42
Have a read of this for colony 1.
http://www.norfolkbee.co.uk/beekeepers-FAQ/when-will-my-new-queen-start-to-lay.

I wonder if the microswarm queen is worth keeping. You might consider uniting with your mini-nuc at some time but there's no rush - you can see what happens with colony 1 first.
 #4159  by Japey Edge
 19 Jul 2019, 13:05
Thanks for the replies everyone.
Colony 1 history:
23.06.2019 - artificial swarm. Queen moved to form colony 2
05.07.2019 - found virgin queen and other QCs.
14.07.2019 - found queen, not sure if same as other QCs could have emerged.. Apparently a swarm came from this colony shortly prior.
 #4160  by Japey Edge
 19 Jul 2019, 13:08
I am leaning toward what Patrick advises for the micro swarm (3). It will be the first time I splat a queen but I think that's how it needs to go. They just aren't building. Will tip them out and maybe replace some drawn comb in the big swarm hive with the partially drawn in the micro swarm - since they're so good at building.

Might stick a frame of eggs from micro swarm in with colony 1 to see if they need to raise a queen.