After giving two hives to a friend I was down to three in the backyard.Was going to do some splits to get back to five so I have some banked queens. Went into the hives today and one hive had a sealed swarm/queen cell which will emerge inside a week. Took its frame and a couple more of brood and two honey frames and set them up in a single box. I hope this short circuits the swarm. Guess which hive this is from. Yep, the mean one. Hope this young lady picks friendly mates…
Cheers
Rob.
Got a few queen cells that are sealed in mine also but dont want to do a split as they are dealing with beetles at the moment and dont want to weaken the hive. Your advice would be appreciated
Do a split into a couple of single boxes and keep the fattest cell in the split without the queen. Keep them fairly dense and reduce your entrances so they are busy, this allows the guards to do their job better. You have beetle traps in so they should be helping. How big is your hive now, how many brood boxes?
When you do that swarms are a distinct posibility so you really have to be on top of them, especially in the hive with the original queen.
Do you have a flow super on? May be worth pulling it off in the short term so the bees don’t have as much to defend.
Funny how you are having a beetle problem. I didn’t see one in any of my hives today.
Just a few ideas
Rob
2 supers nearly chockers ive the got the flow hive on top with plenty of bees in that also. I pulled the hive apart last knight as i found 2 beetle grubs on corflute below the screened bottom board all looked good inside but didnt find the queen as i was trying to work as fast as i could as it was late in the day. While i had it apart i put a screened bottom board in with a oil tray underneath and put 2 apithors in the roof above the flo super, as i didnt have time to inspect properly as all i was worried about was that i had been slimed and cause im new at this i think i saw another grub in a cell, so i hope the bee’s can turf them out if that was the case also there was quite a few drones and queen cells i think. Do you think i should go back in the weekend and what plan of attack would you take
You OK for Saturday? We could have a squiz at them and see what we turn up if you want and the weather is cooperative.
Cheers
Rob.
That would be Fantastic what beer do you drink
