Queen finding tips please.

Ericnwicklow · August 20, 2006, 02:17:45 PM

Hi all

Looking for some tips on queen finding ,opened my hive today ,think i saw her but then lost sight of her ,frames had good brood pattern and found larvae and eggs ,this is the first time i have seen her and would it be better if i had some help to find her next time ?I am in my first year of beekeeping so any help would be great .I have a super on at the moment and should i wait until all the frames are filled and capped? as they are capping in the brood box and seem now to be putting in the super but have not yet capped the honey ,this is my first year and do hope i get even a little of my own honey this year ,any new beekeepers in the last couple of years please let me know your tips that have helped as i would love to here how you are getting on and tips from seasoned keepers would be helpful to .

Ericnwicklow.

Michael Bush · August 20, 2006, 05:36:44 PM

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenspotting.htm

Brian D. Bray · August 20, 2006, 11:58:46 PM

I hope you noted the frame the queen was spotted on. I've found that when I smoke the hive prior to inspecting a hive the queen will usually go to or return to the same area of the hive time after time. If you identify that area of the hive you can find the queen anytime you want.

A lot of beekeepers tell me I'm crazy, but that's been my experience. Also when I ask, I usually find that they've never taken the time to analyze that particular idea. They dismiss it out of hand. I consider that beekeeping with blinders. A Failure to evaluate an idea, whether it proves valid or not, is making a choice to remain ignorant.

BEE C · August 21, 2006, 02:37:43 AM

Hello,
This is my first year too. I have only seen the queen a handfull of times. I spent so much time watching for swarm cells (not regularly enough it seems), and brood pattern.
I work on a bee farm part time, and when we wanted to make splits, we used a queen excluder between two brood boxes and checked for new eggs a week later. One brood box will get a new queen and the other will be marked for closer examination later when there is time, but at least its only in one brood box.
I found it impossible to find the queen when she could be in two or more deeps. I'm new to this, but its so much more easy to find her on ten frames. Next year I plan on splitting hives a few weeks before the main flow, so I have more hives to expand. I still plan on keeping my brood boxes to two deeps, though because I was overwhelmed with overly large hives. I'll take brood and bees out to nucs if they stretch the two boxes. I had three and four box brood nests this year and then two or three supers on that. It was so much hassle to the bees and myself to go in to check for queen cells and brood pattern. I also want to try a horizontal hive setup. I hope youve enjoyed your first year, I know Ive had a buzz... :lol:

kensfarm · August 21, 2006, 11:42:17 AM

Quote from: Brian D. BrayA lot of beekeepers tell me I'm crazy, but that's been my experience.

The last 3 times I saw the queen in one hive.. she was in the 3rd Med. all 3 times.. twice on the 3rd frame in.. once on the 4th frame in. I haven't been using smoke.. the ladies have been pretty calm.

Ericnwicklow · August 22, 2006, 01:57:33 PM

Thanks for your responses ,i will note the frame she is on and if i cannot catch her and mark ,difficult for a begginer i bet ,seen an old beekeeper at my association do it and a pleasure to watch ,caught-held-marked and clipped all in about 3minutes was i impressed.
Really enjoying my first year and hope to have another hive next year,would love to set up my own nucs and have already built two for myself and will be giving one to my neighbour for next year ,
Would you think it is too late to make up a nuc from this years bees or should i wait for next spring?Am a bit worried that they might not produce a queen in time to mate and start laying before winter sets in ,it gets cold up here.
My neibour got a nuc early this year ,it seemed to build up really quick and ,swarmed twice ,managed to catch and put into new hive but thought that the bees would need a year to build up and swarm ,a lesson learned and many more i imagine.
How do i know when a honey flow is happening?

Brian D. Bray · August 22, 2006, 08:12:50 PM

At this point time, if you only have one hive and/or no outside source of a queen, then I would forego trying to build a viable nuc this year. To make building a nuc successful you either need a queen immediately or have access to enough brood frames from other hives to supplement the brood needed to develop the nuc until the nuc made queen can be created, hatched, and begin laying--a period that can take up to a month and a half.

qa33010 · August 25, 2006, 01:40:59 AM

Hi Ericnwicklow, I just finshed a year. I've been practicing by catching drones. When I get better and stop rearranging their appearance so badly I'll attempt to catch a queen when I need to.

It's cool doing this ain't it??? :P

David

Ericnwicklow · September 18, 2006, 04:39:38 PM

Thanks for all your replys to my questions ,will try the drones tip definately will help having a bit of practice,i think i will have to wait though as i don,t see many drones if any in my hive at the moment,the queens laying seems to be slowind down as well i believe this is alright though?
Took the super off my hive at the weekend and hab for full frames of honey which i have removed and discovered that the honey was beautiful heather honey as the taste is so good ,suppose all beekeepers think their first honey is the best ,
A question for you all ,i am going to treat my bee,s as recommended by my association ,should i feed with syrup at the same time or treat with apiguard first then feed,i need to treat soon as the weather is beggining to get cold over here in the wicklow hills.
have really enjoyed my first year and will be building a new hive for next spring for sure ,
This year i was a bit wary of opening the hive but soon realised to understand the ladys you have to observe them ,any suggestions for observing without to much disturbance?
Been looking forward to having a lookon the forum page for some answers and to browse but have been busy with my new baby daughter born 3 weeks ago.
hope to get some feedback from you soon

Regards Ericnwicklow.

Kathyp · September 18, 2006, 08:18:32 PM

the apiguard needs to be done while the temp during the day is above 60 degrees or about 16 C? you need a full month to finish the treatments, or until two trays of the apiguard are gone. it seems to vaporize faster at warmer temps. i wish i had started just a little earlier, but was out of town.

as i understand it, it's quite ok to feed at the same time.

my thing about queen finding is that if there are eggs and larvae at different stages of development, things are ok. i don't really want to find her. i want her to stay away from what i'm doing. my greatest fear is that i'll squish her! :D

congrats on your daughter!!