Surfnirvana Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 After going on a 2 day course and got all the kit, our bees arrived in May and we put them successfully into our National Beehive. They settled in really well and we enjoyed having them in our garden. In July we hadn't seen the queen for 3 weeks, and they had started to make some new queen cells, so we assumed that the old queen had died or was no longer viable. After 4 weeks we found the original queen outside the back of the hive still alive. We put her back in but we found her dead the next week. We hadn't seen any new queens and any new larvae we saw were haphazzard and noticed a lot more drones and much smaller workers on the frames. We concluded that we must have a laying worker. After getting some more advice, we bought another queen. Then we took our hive down to the other end of the garden (which is a reasonable distance) then tipped all of the bees out onto the grass. We then reaasembled the hive back in it's original place hoping that the laying worker woudln't be able to find her way back. We put the new queen in and hoped for the best. However, we found her dead a week later, and there were more laying worker larvae. It is October now and over the past month, the bees have dwindled in number and have been subject to wasp attacks. The hives are empty now. It has certainly been a sad ending to such a promising beginning. However we did harvest 15 jars of honey at the end of August, which is delicious (calculated they cost around £60 a jar though - but worth it!) We haven't been put off and we have met some really very friendly and helpful people locally who have given us lots of advice. Our next nucleous is on order to collect in April / May and we are hoping that we will have a better year in 2010! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenanne Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Poor you! It sonds like they were trying to supercede the old queen, but the QC(s) failed for whatever reason. I was queenless for a while in June (superceded) new queen took ages to lay (well about 4 weeks - seemed like 4 years to me at the time!); I was advised that if she didn't start to show signs of coming good, then add a frame of eggs/young larvae if possible rather than /before introducing a new queen. Ho hum. It seems that once you have laying workers it's v difficult to sort out, other than by the means you tried, and esp with only one hive. Good on you for sorting out next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somerford Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 If you want any local(ish) help, I am about 45 mins away and will do my best if you have any questions next year regards Stephen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Oh, sorry to hear that - hope you can start again next year. What a disappointment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedusA Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 So sorry to hear that your beekeeping efforts didn't work out this year. Even experienced beeks say you can never predict what bees will do. Better luck next year and my advice would be to take Steve up on his kind offer. Having an experienced mentor is worth a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfnirvana Posted October 19, 2009 Author Share Posted October 19, 2009 If you want any local(ish) help, I am about 45 mins away and will do my best if you have any questions next year regards Stephen Thanks Stephen for your very kind offer - having someone to bounce ideas off and getting some experienced advice would be extremley helpful. Watch this space - here's to a more sucessful bee year 2010! Lynne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beesontoast Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 That's a shame Lynne. When you say your bees 'arrived in May', am I correct in thinking that you bought either a package or a nuc? I have heard of one or two breeders selling what they call 'nucs', which turned out to be 'packages'; i.e. the bees in the box were not the daughters of the queen supplied, which was caged separately. I would like to stamp out this sharp practice, as such packages are much less likely to succeed than true nucleus colonies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheilaz Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 That's an interesting point, thanks for making that distinction clear, I'm learning such a lot. Sorry to hear about your experience Lynne. Hope it goes better next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 I wasn't aware of that practise either! Luckily, we had our latest nuc from the local Association and we pretty well established. Sorry to hear you lost your bees - we've been there twice now.........don't give up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
