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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Hamsiba Family <hamsibas AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Bees <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Double trouble
  • Date: Mon, 5 May 2014 15:31:19 -0400

Brad,

Re: "Should I wait another week to go in again?  I expect the other queen will be already hatched if they swarmed, just doing her mating flights?" No, that's not the way the swarming colony works. They'll leave anytime after the first queen cell is capped. Queen cells are capped around Day 8 after the egg is laid and emerge around Day 16. So if they swarmed today, you can't expect a virgin to emerge until around 8 days from now. Then she'll need a couple or so days to get fit to fly, then a few days for mating flights, then a couple or so days to actually begin laying. So we are up to 18 or so days from now before we can expect to see eggs, at the very earliest. It could easily be a week or more beyond that. Call it 25 to 30 days before you can assume that you'll find evidence of the new queen having settled in.

If nothing else, beekeeping teaches patience!

Randall Austin


On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 1:07 PM, Hamsiba Family <hamsibas AT gmail.com> wrote:
Well, the stronger of the two hives that were both making new queens (no eggs or open brood anywhere, lots of queen cells) swarmed today, way up out of reach in the top far out branch of a mature oak, about 40 feet up and way out.  I expect there is no way to retrieve this one.

So, perhaps I should have done an even split with half the queen cells in each? 

At least the hive should no longer be in danger of being honey bound.  Right? 

Should I wait another week to go in again?  I expect the other queen will be already hatched if they swarmed, just doing her mating flights?  I don't want to be too much of an intrusive landlord.

Year 2 looks to be just as new as year one, just different.

Thanks for your comments,

Brad


On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 7:28 PM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, keep an eye out for honey-boundness. Try to ensure you always have at least a couple or three frames of empty drawn comb. Once the new queens start laying they'll need a place to do so. If needed, you can replace honey frames in the brood nest with foundation and put them in the freezer for later.

Randall Austin


On 5/2/2014 5:46 PM, Hamsiba Family wrote:
Well, they were not thinking of swarming.  

Not sure if it was the formic acid for the mites, beekeeper error or Mother Nature (all bets are on #2 I see...), but we now have both hives heading into their second year with no eggs and lots of closed queen cells and a couple open.  Still some capped workers and capped drones too, but nowhere near a full court press!  That explains how lazy they have been this week.  The Queens are dead, long live the Queens!

Good news is they seem to be on the right path, but both will pretty much miss the season, right?.  Drat!  One got a bit of work on a first super, the second never got beyond filling their two deeps.

Question - Should we worry about the hives becoming honey locked?   We are erring towards doing nothing, but if we should be watching out for something, please mention it.

One has one empty undrawn super over an excluder and the other has a drawn and lightly used super with an empty super on top (no excluder).

Thanks,

Brad & Dorothy


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