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  • 2 weeks later...

New queen purchased and installed after three continuous weeks with no new brood. So I am 95% certain there is no other queen in the hive but at ?40.00 for a new queen it?s a bit of a risk.

Will keep you all informed, I am hoping to see new eggs/brood one week from this coming Saturday.

I fitted the new queen last Friday and was thinking of an inspection this Saturday but think I will leave it for another week. What do you think?


Thanks





dulwichbeekeeper Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> hope there all behaving there selfs know the

> secound nector flow is just starting so that

> should keep them busy

  • 5 weeks later...

Sorry to have taken so long to post.


4/6/11 No new brood (bee grubs) queen not seen.

7/6/11 As above.

9/6/11 bought new New Zealand queen from Hastings 40.00 pounds

10/6/11 installed new queen.

23/6/11 no new brood but lots of bees. Queen seen and ok.

2/7/11 new sealed brood and queen seen

16/7/11 three frames of sealed brood and queen seen. Only about 7000 bees in hive.


I wont get any honey this year unless we have a three month heat wave. This is my second purchased queen. I don?t know what happened to the first. I suspect there was already a virgin queen in there and she would have killed the older queen. I have had at least two swarms this summer.

Virgin queens mate while flying. Several drones, male bees with no sting, from different hives go on mating flights and find a virgin queen. They find the queen from smell, bees are very sensitive to smells of all kinds, some are trained to sniff for explosives and drugs. Seven will mate with her giving her all the sperm she needs for life. Then they drop to the ground paralysed.

23/7/11


Inspected my bees once again and still good news. There are now 5 frames of sealed and unsealed brood. I would estimate about 8000 bees in the colony. No sign of veroa or wax moth. Since it?s not very warm I have reduced the physical size of the hive by removing the honey box (called a ?super?) which helps them stay warm and reduces stress so they can concentrate of producing worker bees. The honey box had a little honey, maybe about a pound and I left that out, all the honey has been eaten by wasps.

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