Saturday 24 May 2014

they don't behave

My first colony was split 8 days ago when I found queen cells. The queen and flying bees below. Check today and the queen has gone and left several QC.
My second has a new queen laying in the bottom, I could not find. I took the qc's from the top box and made 4 small nucs. All failed.
The third was a bit lively but I added another super.
The forth had my best queen in, but she has now left making a small colony smaller. This is the colony I've been taking frames of eggs from for queen rearing. The queen has also absconded before the qc's were sealed! I've split this into 2 colonies on the same site with QC's in both
The fifth has a good queen in the bottom and I saw a queen hatch in the top so I took down all the other qc's.

Friday 16 May 2014

Things move quick

Wednesday night found all qc destroyed,  had missed 2 other qc which had emerged.  Shook all bees into box and placed comb under excluder, added fresh eggs to bottom box. Now switched boxes and added splitter board.. tonight seen new qc being built.  2 other colonies have qc so made splits with each.

Thursday 8 May 2014

Starting Queens

Check my new QC last night, will try to split into 6 nucs next wed/thur.