A quick inspection today showed that not all is going well in the apiary.Poly is still doing nicely - good population size, and drawing out of the second super, but still not much honey storage - only about 5 frames - due to the sunshine and showers weather of the last few weeks.
Heather was doing well - lots of honey, and a good brood pattern (only on 2 frames) - but a supersedure cell on the outside frame. I decided that it was too risky to allow a supersedure this late in the year (although have subsequently been advised otherwise). I took off this cell, with plans to destroy it.
However, on inspecting Alice, it turns out that its queenless, with only capped brood and no eggs or larvae. This isn’t unexpected, as they’ve superseded twice in the last 3 months. As a result, the supersedure cell from Heather is now in there - it might have been chilled or damaged, but its still a possible new queen for that colony.
I plan to merge Heather and Alice in a few weeks, and see if 2 slightly broken colonies can limp through the winter as one. As a starter, I’ve moved Heather a foot or so towards Alice, so I can merge them when they meet up.
Todo
Merge Alice and Heather in a few weeks. Hope and pray they come through the winter with either Heather’s queen, or the supersedure queen. - Change of Plan, try to take both through winter!
