It was a cold, wet miserable weekend right up to 5pm yesterday when the sun actually shone. We got suited up and then did our checks.
On checking the first of the Carni hives, we couldnt find a queen, just about to put the middle frame in when O/H noticed a lot of bees on the underside of the open mesh floor. We lifted the hive, took the floor off and brushed the bees into the hive... There was a Queen!!!! No idea how or why she was there but we put her back and hopefully she is mated and will stay. There are no eggs/lavae/brood in that hive now. O/H went out later on to see if they had calmed down but there was another clump of bees in the same place. we are hoping that they can just smell the queen from previous (fingers crossed).
The other 2 Carni hives have no queens at all!
Buckfast Nuc is doing well, we have had some robbing there from neighbouring black bees (cute bees but a pain) our girls are doing an outstanding job of fighting them off though. The Queen cell is capped and should be hatching soon, its small but hopefully it will produce a good healthy queen.
Buckfast hive is as always just constant although there was no sign of eggs unless we missed them. There was early stage lavae though. It was pretty shaded by the time we did our check...
The Varroa appears to be cleared up now too.
The 2 new Buckfast Queens should hopefully arrive soon, then we can introduce them to the queenless hives before its too late and hopefully they will build up.
Ahh the ups and downs of bee keeping!!
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