Okay, to give the background. Approx. 8 weeks ago I discovered one of my hives had no queen and a pile of supercedure cells. I thought "sweet,leave them to do their thing" I noticed 3 weeks later upon inspection that I couldn't find the queen. There was a small section of eggs and very young brood. Only 1 egg per cell. Looked normal so I thought I had a queen, not laying workers. I went back in today. It is full of drones and it is entirely drone brood. Not scattered but big, swathes of it, so I think it is a poorly mated queen. I certainly can't find her and It wasn't the warmest for mating flights.
Either way something has gone wrong. Looking at my options, I am quite happy to shake out the hive, let the workers find the other 3 hives in the apiary and strengthen them. It seems to be the easiest option.. I have placed in a frame of open brood (eggs, some just hatched by the looks of). So will take a look next weekend, if no queen cells I might do the shake out.
Okay. Further inspection showed a new laying queen. What I think happened is the old queen failed and started laying lots of drones. The hive superceded her quick smart, but she was still laying for w
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Markypoo 515
Okay, to give the background. Approx. 8 weeks ago I discovered one of my hives had no queen and a pile of supercedure cells. I thought "sweet,leave them to do their thing" I noticed 3 weeks later upon inspection that I couldn't find the queen. There was a small section of eggs and very young brood. Only 1 egg per cell. Looked normal so I thought I had a queen, not laying workers. I went back in today. It is full of drones and it is entirely drone brood. Not scattered but big, swathes of it, so I think it is a poorly mated queen. I certainly can't find her and It wasn't the warmest for mating flights.
Either way something has gone wrong. Looking at my options, I am quite happy to shake out the hive, let the workers find the other 3 hives in the apiary and strengthen them. It seems to be the easiest option.. I have placed in a frame of open brood (eggs, some just hatched by the looks of). So will take a look next weekend, if no queen cells I might do the shake out.
Any thoughts on my plan?
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yesbut
I used to be a lot like that.
olbe
I don't waste my time on that anymore, Can't seem to find any in my age group
Markypoo
Okay. Further inspection showed a new laying queen. What I think happened is the old queen failed and started laying lots of drones. The hive superceded her quick smart, but she was still laying for w
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