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Well, I am again suffering due to my having been away on holiday. But my bees are fine: they like swarming! It's natural, and all.
I inspected the 2 hives in Maida Vale to find no eggs in either (I did see young unsealed brood in both) nor did I see any queens but I did find a whole host of sealed and unsealed queen cells. I suspect then that both hives have already swarmed. Arghhhhh. Although there seemed to be lots of bees in both hives, the slightly limited progress filling out the supers (given the superb recent weather) confirmed my suspicions. I left 3 queen cells in each hive, but destroyed the rest: 15(!) in Boudicca and 2 in Amidala. I had taken my nuc with me to create a split. However, of the two hives only Boudicca has the necessary normal-depth brood frames, and I have no desire to create a split from those grumpy, swarmy blighters! The nuc remains empty.
My honey harvest this year will again be limited because of this. I'll really need to pay more timely attention in my inspections next spring!
I inspected the 2 hives in Maida Vale to find no eggs in either (I did see young unsealed brood in both) nor did I see any queens but I did find a whole host of sealed and unsealed queen cells. I suspect then that both hives have already swarmed. Arghhhhh. Although there seemed to be lots of bees in both hives, the slightly limited progress filling out the supers (given the superb recent weather) confirmed my suspicions. I left 3 queen cells in each hive, but destroyed the rest: 15(!) in Boudicca and 2 in Amidala. I had taken my nuc with me to create a split. However, of the two hives only Boudicca has the necessary normal-depth brood frames, and I have no desire to create a split from those grumpy, swarmy blighters! The nuc remains empty.
My honey harvest this year will again be limited because of this. I'll really need to pay more timely attention in my inspections next spring!
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