Three New Nucs

Anybrew · July 01, 2011, 09:07:56 PM

Yo Lone, some good points there that you raised thanks. The temps here are about -1 to 4 degrees of a night and top out at about 19 during the day. From what you said I might just leave them alone(haha) for at least a month. The hive is full of Bee's and stores and there is still pollen to be found. I haven't seen any Drones down this way for months out of my 6 hives.

Noise wise they are quiet but they are working hard.

Cheers
Steve

Anybrew · July 03, 2011, 11:41:18 PM

Well five days after I placed a frame of brood in my Nuc I finally opened it today. I expect to see some Queen cells but NO!
Some of the brood frame has hatched and the rest are developing well. However no new eggs.

I searched the hive and found a queen just walking around on frame number 1, no where near the brood.
She did look young, so I am hoping she is will start laying soon, or she could be a virgin.
I am just going to leave them alone for three weeks.

ps. They have heaps of stores .

Cheers
Steve

Anybrew · July 21, 2011, 03:26:03 AM

Well what a great day!, it was about 18 degrees C and it was time to go around my 6 Hives.
I first went to the Queen less Nuc and got a pleasant surprise of three frames full of eggs,grubs and sealed brood!! :-D

The rest of my Hives were check and all Queen right. My strongest Hive was booming, I had reduced it to a eight frame deep for winter. It is full of Bee's,brood and honey. They had even build a mass of capped honey comb on top of the frames what a mess.

So I added a super of foundation and frame of honey, Its been a funny winter here with many species of tree's starting to flower already.
I will just see what happens.

Kampai

Steve

OzBuzz · July 28, 2011, 12:32:23 AM

I'm glad you found your Queen! it may not be that she is young - she probably just reduced her laying over winter. Were the Queens marked when you got them? it's possible that you had a queen all along but she just wasnt laying much. I had a few hives before winter that literally were laying nothing - to the point of me thinking they were queenless - i inspected a few weekends ago and i had a 100% re-queen success as all the hives had a happy laying queen. In situations where you can't find fresh eggs and you can't find the queen sometimes temperament/sound of the hive can be an indication... the best way to find out for sure is to do as you did and put a frame of eggs in there and see what they do with it... congratulations though mate! all the best for the coming season!

Anybrew · July 28, 2011, 01:32:15 AM

Thanks OzBuzz, the new KI queens were not marked, I do mark my queens when I re queen as it is so much easier to spot a marked queen.

I think it will be a good season as my hives are humming at the moment its like an early spring this way, I hope you have a good season too.

Cheers
Steve

bernsad · September 10, 2011, 09:01:04 PM

Quote from: OzBuzz on July 28, 2011, 12:32:23 AM
In situations where you can't find fresh eggs and you can't find the queen sometimes temperament/sound of the hive can be an indication...

What should this sound like? Newbee here and I haven't been able to discern a difference in sounds, it all just sounds like buzzing to me!

Mardak · September 11, 2011, 04:19:36 AM

A demoralised hive is very quiet. A sprightly hive has a hum and an active hive has a very deep excited high humming sound.

bernsad · September 11, 2011, 11:11:30 PM

Good, thanks Mardak, I'll keep a better ear out now.

OzBuzz · September 11, 2011, 11:39:01 PM

Quote from: bernsad on September 10, 2011, 09:01:04 PM
Quote from: OzBuzz on July 28, 2011, 12:32:23 AM
In situations where you can't find fresh eggs and you can't find the queen sometimes temperament/sound of the hive can be an indication...
What should this sound like? Newbee here and I haven't been able to discern a difference in sounds, it all just sounds like buzzing to me!

Mardak, would you not agree though that a Queenless hive has an almost defensive kinda roar about it? It sounds very different to a queen right hive... I agree with the sprightly hive sound but even a very active hive should have a mellow, almost melodic, relaxed, steady hum about it...