Hello Ann,
Yes them their bees of yours are doing extremely well.
I have three colonies in Langstroth hives now from that original swarm you gave
Paul, and from that original swarm there has been a further five swarms in two
seasons.
Two unfortunately escaped as i wasn’t at home a neighbour informed me.
Funny thing is I did offer the prime swarm yesterday back to Paul..I think he
regrets not taking it! since he viewed the photo’s.
On 24 Apr 2019, at 14:47, Ann Welch (Redacted sender "ann_welch" for DMARC)
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ha ha, seems I sent it to the group after all. lol.
Ann
On 24/04/2019 14:44, Ann Welch wrote:
Hi Paul,
I'd send this to the group but I'm not sure if I'm still connected ! It's
been very hit and miss so I'm going to resurect an old googlemail account
and try that. maybe freelist doesn't like Btinternet mail ! I'm beginning to
agree myself lol. Any old how.....
I went over to have a gander at what remains of my now disected
"Frankenhive" yesterday and I'm so pleased to say that both halves of the
split appear to be queenright. There were fewer bees evident in the top bar
nuc part than the Warre bottom part, (probably because all the flying bees
had relocated back to their original position next door after the split),
but there definitely was evidence of pollen coming in to both halves....see
pics of both hives and incoming pollen laden traffic :)
As it was still only 15 day's since I split the hive it seems a pretty safe
bet to assume that I did in fact split the brood chamber in the process and
that I just struck lucky that the queenless half already had a queen cell or
two just waiting to go ! She wouldn't have had time to hatch, mature and
mate in such a short time otherwise...Always assuming that pollen gathering
is a true and sure sign of a laying queen of course.
Not quite sure about my next move (I have a few options to consider first)
but I definitely will not be reuniting them again ! In fact I will never use
a nuc box ever again !!!... the hastle of trying to transfer them to a
"proper hive" once they've crossed their comb is just not worth the effort.
BTW I've been tickled to hear about Karl's bees. I went back over some old
e-mails from him this morning and wonder if he has only ever had bees from
the colony that you gave to him that came from me lol. He seems to be doing
well with them if that's the case. AND if that IS the case then Brian and
Faith has continued the line lol.
BW Ann
