Visited Apiary today to look at the nucleus boxes with the four queens introduced four days ago. I was working with Clive and we had good session.
In nucleus at Hive 8 where the new queen had been placed in the hive, Queen seen on the brood and active. On Hive 10 where the queen was introduced with attendant bees, again queen seen and active, strong colony. On Hive 5 nucleus where queen was introduced without attendant bees, again seen, fine and working well. The only failure was on hive 9. Here the queen was introduced with two attendant bees in the cage, but there were indications that she may not be strong. There was no sign of her. As a precaution a sealed queen cell was manually set into the frame. That appears to be OK.
In addition we looked at Hive 6 and Hive 7 where were artificial swarms from Hive 9 and 10 respectively. In Hive 6 we found a a healthy unmarked queen laying eggs. In Hive 7 we could not see the queen but we could see Brood in all stages so we are satisfied it is queen right. Interestingly the colony remains as feisty as its parent colony, lets hope the new queen will produce better manner brood!
Therefore a good introduction on balance, and we now have 6 Hives and four nucs that are queen right and thriving. I nuc 9 that is not the case, but has a queen cell on a frame.
Ken Gallagher - Apiary supervisor
In nucleus at Hive 8 where the new queen had been placed in the hive, Queen seen on the brood and active. On Hive 10 where the queen was introduced with attendant bees, again queen seen and active, strong colony. On Hive 5 nucleus where queen was introduced without attendant bees, again seen, fine and working well. The only failure was on hive 9. Here the queen was introduced with two attendant bees in the cage, but there were indications that she may not be strong. There was no sign of her. As a precaution a sealed queen cell was manually set into the frame. That appears to be OK.
In addition we looked at Hive 6 and Hive 7 where were artificial swarms from Hive 9 and 10 respectively. In Hive 6 we found a a healthy unmarked queen laying eggs. In Hive 7 we could not see the queen but we could see Brood in all stages so we are satisfied it is queen right. Interestingly the colony remains as feisty as its parent colony, lets hope the new queen will produce better manner brood!
Therefore a good introduction on balance, and we now have 6 Hives and four nucs that are queen right and thriving. I nuc 9 that is not the case, but has a queen cell on a frame.
Ken Gallagher - Apiary supervisor