Another visit today - just to check on them and make sure they are okay and not about to swarm. And, to my untutored eyes, they look okay. The weather in the last week has been changeable to say the least. On a couple of days we have had heavy rain and on others good temperatures. Then on Saturday and Sunday (today) the temperature was in the high 20s. Heaven knows that that is doing to pollen production.
Anyhoo, I checked a few of the frames in the main brood chamber and most of those in the one above the queen excluder. I did see a couple of small queen cells that had been created but none were highly polished inside and all were empty. They do tend to turn up as the bees go about their daily business so I might take a chance and not do those anti-swarm methods as they seem pretty happy at the moment.
I did have a bit of a look around and I saw eggs that had been newly laid. So the queen is still there and laying pretty heavily. There are loads of bees about to emerge. It's such a strong colony. Though on one corner I did see the start of a lump of propolis again. Not sure why that is turning up. These bees have always been keen propolisers but I need to keep an eye on that as the queen avoids the areas where it is thickest. To be honest I'm not sure what it is. I'll try to take a snap and add it to this for future reference.
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Sunday, 1 June 2008
As you were
So there I was all ready to take some anti-swarm precautions and, it turns out, I need not have worried.
I went along today fully expecting to have to take swift action to stop them swarming and, to my eyes at least, they looked pretty happy. I was worried before looking through the frames for a few reasons. First, my queen is in her second year and the older they get the more likely they are to swarm. Plus she is the daughter I raised myself and offspring, rather than new blood, can be rather more swarmy. And I was a bit late noticing that they did not have much room to expand into. All of which I thought would add up to a recipe for swarming.
But looking through the brood chamber today and I only found three queen cells none of which had an egg in. Plus the bees looked pretty happy - I did mess them around today and they didn't get too upset.
What I did notice was, again, lots of sealed brood. This queen is an absolute stellar layer of eggs. They really seem to be gearing up for the flow in a few weeks time. I did find her this time too and she is below the queen extractor so the mistake I made has not caught me out.
So I didn't have to separate brood from flying bees to trick them that they have swarmed. Of course, doubtless, they will now swarm and catch me out completely.
Having said all this there were a few things I was worried about. I didn't see too many eggs or very young brood. There was some but not a lot. Plus I was not sure that all the brood was entirely healthy. There was one cell in which the larva looked a bit blobby. Finally, they have stashed away a huge amount of pollen - for what I do not know. But it does mean that on some of the frames the brood was a bit spotty. It remains to be seen whether that will cause me any problems.
I went along today fully expecting to have to take swift action to stop them swarming and, to my eyes at least, they looked pretty happy. I was worried before looking through the frames for a few reasons. First, my queen is in her second year and the older they get the more likely they are to swarm. Plus she is the daughter I raised myself and offspring, rather than new blood, can be rather more swarmy. And I was a bit late noticing that they did not have much room to expand into. All of which I thought would add up to a recipe for swarming.
But looking through the brood chamber today and I only found three queen cells none of which had an egg in. Plus the bees looked pretty happy - I did mess them around today and they didn't get too upset.
What I did notice was, again, lots of sealed brood. This queen is an absolute stellar layer of eggs. They really seem to be gearing up for the flow in a few weeks time. I did find her this time too and she is below the queen extractor so the mistake I made has not caught me out.
So I didn't have to separate brood from flying bees to trick them that they have swarmed. Of course, doubtless, they will now swarm and catch me out completely.
Having said all this there were a few things I was worried about. I didn't see too many eggs or very young brood. There was some but not a lot. Plus I was not sure that all the brood was entirely healthy. There was one cell in which the larva looked a bit blobby. Finally, they have stashed away a huge amount of pollen - for what I do not know. But it does mean that on some of the frames the brood was a bit spotty. It remains to be seen whether that will cause me any problems.
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