After waiting 9 days the bees are not on the flow comb. May 20th they were beginning to form queen cells, no eggs in the upper super queen cells that I removed. Do I need to take the hive apart for an inspection for swarm cells? I don’t want to lose half of my bees!
Everything is blooming right now!
I painted some sugar syrup onto the flow cells just now to get the bees up into the flow super. Should I be looking for swarm cells before the queens are likely to hatch? I am a bit scared of taking the hive apart but I will if it means I keep my bees at home.
Do you have any pictures from your inspection? What are the temperatures like for you the last couple weeks?
Thanks Chau06 for asking those questions.No I never thought of pictures. The last week our weather had turned unseasonably cold with near freezing some nights.
I reopened the hive again taking the two brood boxes apart to find some small capped brood cells in the burr comb between the boxes. Definitely not queen cells. Also I found the brood frames on either side of my 8 frame to not be completely drawn out.
I am not strong enough to lift the brood boxes so I did not inspect the bottom brood box. I was encouraged by finding I still had some space in my upper brood box.
You should wait for all your brood frames to be drawn and covered with bees before adding the super. If you need help to lift a brood box, you’re going to need a hand to lift the super for sure, especially if there’s much honey inside.
Also, if it is cool, the bees are going to cluster over the brood cells to keep them warm and not spread themselves out enough to work the flow frames.
So I added the flow frame super too early and set my bees back? The weather turned cold and wet, so the bees had to work harder to keep the brood warm? I have a fleece quilt covering the flow frames above the lid and under the roof.
Today the temperatures were almost normal, 26C but over night had dipped to 3C. The last 2 outer brood frames are 60% drawn out. I am gone Monday morning and will not be home until Saturday. Will it be best to leave the (empty) flow super on or should I remove it? The 7 day forecast is for more seasonally warm weather.
I don’t think you set them back. But I would recommend removing the super until they’ve fully drawn and at least moderately utilized the upper box. You also should find an assist so you can inspect the lower box(es), at least intermittently.