Much moving around took place during today’s beginners class - at least they all got to see something interesting!
As I was worrying last week, Wood is definitely queenless. Its now more than 20 days since the queen hatched, and there were not only no sign of eggs, but also many play cells dotted throughout the hive. Clearly they want a new queen!
On inspecting Poly swarm preparations were well underway, with 3 queen cells, full of royal jelly and a small larvae floating in each. My plan was thus:
Knock down the weakest queen cell.
Transfer one of these (on a frame with sealed brood) to Wood - the bees will hopefully adopt this new queen who should hatch some time around the 27th May and be mated and laying by the 1st of June. The sealed brood will keep the colony’s numbers ticking over.
Take the final queen cell and some nurse bees, place them in a nuc on a new site. This should do 2 things - interrupt the swarm cycle in Poly, and produce a new colony. Normally, I would have done a simple swarm (Pagden method), but given my new hive equipment is still in the workshop with its paint drying, this buys me enough time to do a proper swarm at the end of next week.
Pagden method
This method is to be used when you see queen cells being drawn out with larvae and royal jelly in preparation for a swarm.
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Take the existing hive and move it to a new site, destroying all but 1 healthy queen cell.
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Put an empty hive with undrawn foundation on the old site.
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Go through the existing hive, find the queen, some nurse bees, and 1 frame of sealed brood, and return these to the old site. Be sure there are NO queen cells on this frame of brood!
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Put any supers back on the old site.
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Put a gallon of 1:1 feed on the new site.
The flying bees will return to their original home, meaning the old site will have the old queen and (mostly) flying brood. This will encourage honey collection as there is no brood to look after until the queen starts laying again.
The new site (with the old hive box containing the healthy queen cell) will bring on the new queen, and build up on the existing frames. The sugar feed will replace the nectar usually being brought in by flying bees.
Todo
Carry out a proper swarm method at the end of next week. DONE
Check that the Queen Cell in Wood is continuing to draw properly (Saturday of beginner’s inspection). DONE
Give Faye 5 undrawn frames to replace those used temporarily in the nuc. DONE
