Author Topic: Found my queen. (Read 4503 times)

Beeducked · « **on:** June 24, 2012, 10:20:23 pm »

Know it might not sound like much to the old hands here but managed to find my first new queen and mark her all by myself so feeling quite proud of myself.

Just need to remember I missed the first time and there is also a marked worker in there too!

Bionic · « **Reply #1 on:** June 25, 2012, 11:29:30 am »

Beeducked, I'm laughing at the thought of the worker worker

Moleskins · « **Reply #2 on:** June 25, 2012, 02:16:01 pm »

Well done on finding her and marking her, I always have mine marked to make life easy.
The worker will be dead in a few weeks so not problem there.
I use a little circle of wood with spikes in to trap the Queen while I mark her, or a plastic tube with a plunger. They probably have a name but from my description I'm sure you know what I mean.

Beeducked · « **Reply #3 on:** June 25, 2012, 06:02:40 pm »

I thought about a crown of thorns thingy but my mentor has never used them as she says she worries about impaling things which had made me nervous without even seeing one in action!

Yes, the worker won't be around for long so will be back to just the marked queen. Just need to find the queen in the other nuc. Know she's in there as she is laying but she is obviously a lot sneakier than the first!

ZacB · « **Reply #4 on:** June 27, 2012, 04:45:21 pm »

Clipping will be next then?

Beeducked · « **Reply #5 on:** June 27, 2012, 11:27:36 pm »

Not sure I would be brave enough to clip for a while although I was thinking of having a practice on drones. Might think about that for next year. Just need to find the second nucs queen before I worry about marking her though!

Job for the good weather at the weekend I hope.

ZacB · « **Reply #6 on:** June 28, 2012, 10:03:30 am »

If clipping for the first time wait until at least six frames of brood & she / colony are settled and happy. Also clip at start of year, if things go wrong plenty of brood eggs etc to recover the situation.

Beeducked · « **Reply #7 on:** June 28, 2012, 09:08:54 pm »

Good advice, thank you.

Plantoid · « **Reply #8 on:** June 29, 2012, 10:50:50 pm »

I always fought short of clipping my queens for if they swarm then you lose half of any disease in the hive ,, Nortmally the state of the hive after a swarming is such that it will spring back to massive honey and bee with a vengence due to the queen laying her own body weight in eggs each day (plus I couldn't be bothered as I had fifty hives ).
Leaving a declining queen in place will see the effort steadily reduce the size of the hive till the point is reached where the queen cells are raised .
So I usually grew two cut off frames of queens in a neuc box filled with a couple of cups full of workers . They simply make queen cells along the cut where there are eggs so long as the egggs are three day old or younger.

Then I re queened with the new queens a day after after snuffing out the old queens , introducing the new queen in a queen transporting block .

If it is never allowed to swarm what will nature do to the hive disease wise

?? I've not come across any research on this matter but it does seem sensible to let nature take the upperhand in a hive for most of the time.

The ring of wood with the spikes and woven mesh on top is called strangley enough, " A queen marking cage "

Moleskins · « **Reply #9 on:** June 29, 2012, 11:50:26 pm »

Very good thinking Plantoid, if new frames were able to be put into the hive after swarming that might also help reduce disease.
Queen marking cage - sometimes the brain isn't quick enough at this time of night, obvious when it's there in front of you