Great to see this update. Yes, agree that giving the queenless hive the frame with two or three swarm/supercedure cells would even the odds of a new queen in your favour. Or even just a frame with some brand new eggs!
I agree with Dean. You had a capped queen cell. Once they have a capped cell or even before it is capped then they may swarm. So as you didn't see the queen she may have left and you may have removed their successor? You need to know there are eggs or day old larvae in the hive before destroying their replacement queen cells.
Hey Frank, There was a capped queen cell on the frames at 7:20. That frame could have been added to the queenless hive or you could cut out the cell and add it to the queenless hive. Those cells could also be used to make a split as the girls have gone into swarm mode in the nuc, and trying to stop them now will mean making them think they have swarmed by a relocation of bees and frames. So make a split and get the queen out of there into another nuc. Given you just knocked the cells off, a suggestion would be to get a few swarm traps set out close by and out with frames you are allowed to use and some swarm lures :) 10:33 that bee has been taken apart by guard bees is my guess, so either robbing , or drift ended badly for her! And then you talk about the stuff I just said, so LOL you are onto it! Everyone's a critic - and then sigh. Great job Frank, love the videos and honesty.
thanks for the video. my 2 cents, when you put the nuc in and added frames of capped honey you completed the part of the puzzle to swarm. They have already been in tight space creating the desire but didn't have the resources to swarm. Might be the time of year for swarming or the seller made splits for nucs and had them for longer than usual. Anyway, it's like a box of chocolate: " you never know what you're gonna get."
I’ve never heard “check the lid for the queen” before… now I’m going to look because that’s a good point- you never know! Especially with these things, they just do what they want anyway. 🤷♂️
Removing swarm cells will not prevent your hive from swarming. Once they start the process there is not stopping it... unless you take the queen out and a bunch of bees to simulate a swarm and put them in a new hive
Thanks dean I don’t agree particularly when you are installing a nuc. You have massively increased their space and destroyed the cells it is more likely they will stay
Dean, I agree. Once they make their mind up to swarm you can knock down all the swarm cells but they will just keep rebuilding. That would have been a great opportunity to start a NUC by putting the old queen in there. Oh well, the challenge of beekeeping is on the spot decision making.
Hi frank.I had made a split and they had made me 5 queen cell so to save the queen I had put cage on 4 of the cell it work out 😃if you want more bee hive give it a try 😃
With capped queen cells you should have made sure if the queen was there. If by the small chance she was. You could have moved her to the queenless hive.
Thanks John. people say you can damage them. I think it depends how much and hard you shake them, I would try to avoid it if that queen cell was vital. Use a brush.
I'm new to beekeeping, so I like watching hive inspection videos. Question: At what point do you feed pollen vs feeding sugar syrup? And where does one get pollen to feed their bees?
Excellent question mark. I am in the process of making my own pollen supplement. Basically they need carbs (pollen) and sugars (nectar). Inspect frames and see what they are storing. If there is plenty of avaiable pollen they should get it on their own. Emerging brood needs a mix of pollen and honey that is known as bee bread. When you see a frame packed with it smell it. It is quite pungent. Spring time calls for pollen for sure sugar water if their stores are low. Hope this helps.
@@4dhoneybee107 -- Thanks! There's a bit of a flow going on here, so I'll check my hive in a couple weeks to see what they have. I looked yesterday and they're putting up "nectar", but I think that's mostly the sugar water I've been feeding them.
Your plan to move queen cells from the queen right hive into to the queen less hive wouldn’t be a bad idea but it also wouldn’t help the queen less hive unless the cells in queen right hive are older then the ones in the queenless hive. Boy that was confusing but I hope you understand
