3littlechickens Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 We're new to beekeeping and everything has been going well so far, with lots of useful and invaluable help, advise and support from our local beekeeping association. The bees came from a swarm towards the end of May, and settled in very well, with no problems so far and the population growing nicely. We're off on holiday tomorrow for a week so did a full inspection today. Put a super on just over a week ago (beehaus) and looked initially like the bees were making good progress there, but on closer inspection we can see eggs... does this mean we've got a laying working or that the queen is managing to get past the excluder into the super? The eggs look like they have been laid by the queen according to the pictures in the beehaus book... could we have fit the queen excluders wrong? Any suggestions/advice much appreciated. I think we're the only beehaus owners in our association at the moment. Thanks, Emma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 She will generally stay downstairs if there is enough space and super space is required for stores. The queen excluders do not cover all, so she will get upstairs if she really wants. There may e laying workers in any colony but they are suppressed by pheromones, and any eggs are usually removed by other workers. I would suggest that you need to study to be able to recognize the brood differences between laying workers, drone laying queens and normal worker brood. You will have normal worker brood in your supers, that is almost for certain. I would suggest she needed more space around the brood nest, but your information supplied is a little on the thin side, to say the least. I am guessing that you have ten 14 x 12 frames in the box and they are all in the same half? Any decent prime swarm should draw and fill twelve 14 x 12 frames in about three weeks if there is a fair nectar flow. My Dartingtons have about 15 frames in the main box, with a super over, at the moment (I am not using the beehaus at present) . I usually run my Dartingtons with the super over the central two sections. If I were to use a queen excluder, the National excluder would work perfectly, beneath the National super. It seems there are numerous adantages with the timber version. Hope this helps. Enjoy your holiday, but you may need extra half supers or brood frames fitting before you go. In just a week they hive can easily be pushed into swarm mode if there is insufficient space. Stores frame cappings in the main body could be bruised to encourage them the move stores up, too. RAB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3littlechickens Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 Hi, Thank you very much for the reply. Very helpful. We added more space in the supers before the holiday and things appear fine now that we're back. Going to do a full inspection tomorrow when less tired from the long drive, but they appear fine. I'll see what has been going on in the supers tomorrow. Thanks again, Emma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
