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Author Topic: New split Eating crow up date.  (Read 4025 times)

Offline don2

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New split Eating crow up date.
« on: June 23, 2013, 03:50:15 pm »
As Has been stated in some other threads. I made a split a week ago this past Friday.That is 9 days ago, right. Well, I want some one to tell me what went wrong. I ended up with 8 not 6 queen cells as previously mentioned. Two frames with 4 on each one. Today I decided to cut them back to 2 cells per frame. I split the 10 frame box to a 5 frame and 4 frame mating nuc this past Friday. 2 days ago, right. When I went onto the first box today I found one queen cell torn open from the side but the top was also gone. The other 3 are still intact. The second box, one queen cell perfectly opened from the top. Are these queens coming out a few days early. or, are the bees dis satisfied with what they have and destroying the queens. Or. were the cells started when I made the split. Like I said in another post, I did not notch the cells. The queen in the mother hive lays a solid pattern with very few cells missed. what say ye? :) d2
« Last Edit: June 25, 2013, 06:22:05 pm by don2 »

Offline beek1951

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Re: New split
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2013, 08:34:20 pm »
The ones opened with a round hole on the end are hatched and opened
by the new queen. The ones torn open at the side are destroyed by an existing
queen

Offline don2

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Re: New split
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2013, 03:52:15 pm »
Foragers are going in and out of my new nucs. I am going to add another box to each and let'm ride for a while. I'll check in on them in 10 or 12 days. Feeding of course.  :) ;) d2

Offline don2

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Re: New split Eating crow up date.
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2013, 06:43:34 pm »
I wanted to put the splits in 8 frame boxes. I did so. While I was transferring the frames I checked the ones that had the queen cells on them. So, I have read more than once that the workers can tell through the cell which queen will be the best. well it appears that is what has taken place in my splits. All the cells except one in each box are gone.The bees are not congregating around these cells. where the other ones were they were at work cleaning up. By the way, forgot to mention the wax comb these cells were built on were virgin wax comb. The one cell was capped last Wednesday, that was 5 days after the split was made and it is in a place that I specifically noticed the larvae, very small. The other one was an egg on the split day. Because of noticing to see how many eggs and fresh hatched brood was on those 2 frames. These two frames was number 2 and 8, everything in between was capped brood.
This is the first time I have tried rearing queens. All Cells I ever had were swarm cells. That may be why I never had very good luck.
I think because when you make a split from a swarm pulsed colony they will carry the impulse to the split and swarm anyhow.
So today is day 12 and I didn't think there was anyway those queen cells was ready.
Now, check this out. The colony I made this split from now has the second box almost full of brood again, and it was a medium five frame nuc on the May 11. But the crow was good. :roll:  ;) :) d2

Offline 10framer

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Re: New split Eating crow up date.
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2013, 11:31:08 am »
don, you have to be careful after the cells are capped there is a period of a few days where they are really sensitive to vibration (from what i've been told).  i've pulled a frame with 20 viable cells with workers all around them only to go back a couple of days later to pull them and find maybe 3 that the workers didn't cut down.  i'm bad about not writing dates down and i had gone in about 4 days earlier than i meant to. anyway, my point is that i think there is truth to the sensativity to vibration at certain points in development.  mark your calendar and after day 8 don't go back in until a couple of days before they should emerge. 
on a side note, what are you seeing from hive beetles right now?  i have a couple of hives that have more than i like to see in them.  i'm actually thinking about merging those two to make a stronger colony.  one has a queen that seems to be on a down hill slide.

Offline don2

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Re: New split Eating crow up date.
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2013, 11:23:41 pm »
I haven't noticed very many beetles in my new colonies. I am going to install traps tomorrow. Other than that the two nucs are forging and taking feed. Have got to add another super to the mother hive. It will then be 3 high, the split would have been four. That was a medium 5 frame nuc on the 11 of of may.  :) d2