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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #4245  by Alfred
 24 Jul 2019, 19:36
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Tried my hand at wing clipping ,practiced on a nice fat drone.
Put him on the garden chair to see if he couldn't fly but he sat there sulking.
Came back with a cup of tea to find him half gone.
Just my luck
Apidea absconded
My cut out from last week is a heap of silk and waxmoth grubs so thats in a builders bucket in the freezer now.
Burnt my hand flaming the woodware.
None of hives laying.
They sting me but were happy to let a wasp in to feed.
Might try combining them all with a new bought queen and a frame from my only laying colony in one of the polynucs.
Think I might be starting from scratch again next year.............
The heat is hot.
 #4249  by Adam Bee
 24 Jul 2019, 23:46
Alfred,

If you do restart from scratch, or want to buy a new Queen, I would suggest V&L Honey / Honeybee Suppliers
https://www.honeybeesuppliers.co.uk/

They are nice people and the nuc I bought from them has been phenomenal. In the association apiary the two strongest hives have come from them as well.

Can't hurt to try!?

Sorry to hear you're having such a jobian purgatory of a time with your colonies... :(
 #4257  by Japey Edge
 25 Jul 2019, 18:37
Had a decent enough inspection today but just quickly, I had to take out a frame where the comb was sticking out real far, almost to the foundation of the next frame. I cut out the capped honey (first taste of honey from our colonies) and it is delicious of course.

See pic below, what should I do now?

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 #4258  by NigelP
 25 Jul 2019, 19:03
Remove that wax/propolis build up from your flat DN4 edges...then all will fit neatly into hive again.
On inspections do the same for each frame. It's a constant battle.
Enjoy your first honey nothing ever tasted as good as your first honey.
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 #4259  by Japey Edge
 25 Jul 2019, 19:18
Thanks Nigel,

I replaced a frame, as I tipped out that micro swarm, so gave them a decent frame out of that.

I ended up putting two shallow boxes in and sitting the frame up top. The bees have a lot of space now so how soon should I expect to be able to take the frame out?

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 #4260  by Japey Edge
 25 Jul 2019, 19:26
So today's run down, inspection in order:

Colony 4 - big swarm still doing well. Brood getting capped. Nice and strong. Hopefully will build stronger. Didn't end up putting any near-emerging brood in. Also didn't add super. They still have some comb to draw on what they have.

Colony 1 - saw queen but no sign she's doing anything. I have a nice apidea queen so she will be getting replaced. Took out fat frame of honey and had a taster. Replaced that frame and another of foundation with the best two from micro swarm (3)

Colony 3 - micro swarm. End of the road. A relative wanted the queen for their apidea so collected her yesterday. I picked out the good frames and gave to colony 1. Tipped them out on the grass. Hive 3 now inactive

Colony 2 - with the oldest queen. Still going strong. I could take some brood to put in with swarm (4) but really, they'll be ready to emerge themselves next week won't they? 3 weeks?

So my questions:

1. Pretty much all of micro swarm bees marched into colony 1 - will they play nice?

2. How long does colony 1 have to be queenless before I can put apidea queen in?

3. What do I do with apidea brood frames when queen has been relocated?
 #4261  by Alfred
 25 Jul 2019, 19:41
On point 2 they say 4hours but so long as they're getting agitated/fiesty that's the sign they know .
I'd put her in an introduction cage and see what they do.
If there's a mass pile-on after a few hours then it's not a good sign but a few wandering across is good ,so let her go.
 #4262  by NigelP
 25 Jul 2019, 20:27
Jazz ASAP to remove..like tomorrow. All that open space will have them drawing wild comb like there is no tomorrow.
You can add queen again ASAP, she is a laying queen should be accepted better. Lot of different book times for queenless before adding new queen. I'll make a queenless nuc up and add caged queen as soon as nuc is made up.
 #4263  by Japey Edge
 25 Jul 2019, 21:05
NigelP wrote:
25 Jul 2019, 20:27
Jazz ASAP to remove..like tomorrow. All that open space will have them drawing wild comb like there is no tomorrow.
You can add queen again ASAP, she is a laying queen should be accepted better. Lot of different book times for queenless before adding new queen. I'll make a queenless nuc up and add caged queen as soon as nuc is made up.
I'm out all day tomorrow. Will the evening, say 6pm, be OK or should I just get it now and hope they've cleared the frame up?

If I can wait, I'll stick the queen in colony one at the same time.
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