Regicide!

I went to the hives yesterday to release the new Queens and I got a bit of a surprise...

The new Queen in first hive I opened at home had been killed in her cage.  No messing about!  Queen and attendants all killed.  The residents were clearly unhappy with my proposed coups d'etat!  But why?  I took a look through the hive and sure enough I found some young larvae present, but not what I would call a lot, but young enough and sufficient enough I supposed for there to be a queen already present.  And sure enough I found her.  Clearly alive and kicking and in control enough for the workers to dispatch the new Queen.  Bit of a waste that! Not much dense brood in the hive though.

In the second of my hives at home the new Queen was still alive in her cage along with her attendants.  Much more promising!  There wasn't any candy plug on the end of the cage so I just popped the cork and encouraged the Queen to leave, which of course she didn't! So I lifted the mesh from the top of the cage and let her crawl out, which she did, right onto the top of a frame where she sat around and allowed the workers to attend to her.  All good so far!  Just to make sure she didn't get it in her head to fly off I moved a couple of frames apart and sure enough she thought yep, now it's time to head down into the hive.  All very controlled and very calm.  Good Girl!

Down at the Botanical Gardens it was the same situation as the first hive.  The residents didn't want me foisting a newcomer, with no right to succession, on them so they snuffed her out as well.  Again I saw the resident Queen.  She looked a little thin so she might be new and for the life of me I was totally convinced I saw a second new Queen in the hive on the same frame.  I know this can happen in a hive, with an unmated queens (that aren't giving off pheromone) and it is possible they were unmated but I reckon I was just imagining things.  Anyway I let this resident Queen get on with things.

So what's going on?  And can (or indeed should) I do something about it.  Well, to answer the second thing first; can/should I? I think it would be very difficult for me to locate another new queen right now form a breeder so I might as well go with what I have, even if the laying pattern is suspect.  Perhaps in the spring if there isn't any improvement (and if the bees make it that far) I'll make splits or get new Queens.  That said, I think there is enough in the way of stores in the hives, or there will be by the time the bees stop foraging for the bees to get through OK.  I just hope the Queens have good enough, warm enough, weather to let them lay prolifically and produce bees for the winter.

But why the relatively poor brood pattern?  Well I think it may well be down to the after effects of thee MAQS treatment.  It wasn't long after I completed this treatment that I looked into the hive and decided that maybe a new Queen was needed.  But I think the resident Queen was there all along, just not laying.  Maybe she was knocked back by the treatment? I have heard this can happen and I think this probably best fits what I saw.

Overall the good news at the official start to Fall is that I have 8 hives all with Queens and all with good levels of stores in them.  At least good enough for me not to worry about any feeding for another couple of weeks.  I'll go around and check the hives in early October and see if I need to put anything on. But the way things look the hives look well set as they are.  There are SHB about (aren't there always?) and I will pop a trap or two in the hives as I check them next time.  I saw more beetles this last weekend than I have all summer long!.

Queen Uncaged!

At last I got into the Carniolan hive to uncage the queen. This hive is just so sticky with propolis. It was a real struggle to open it up!  When I did and when I got down to the cage I found she had broken out!

I've no idea how long she had been uncaged for (its been 10 days since she was caged) but there was little sign of any new eggs having been laid, which I suppose is good.  Anyway I was beginning to think she had disappeared altogether, and then I spotted her; she seems fine.

I'll do a second mite count in the next couple of weeks or so to see what effect caging her has had!

Mite Testing

Now the harvest is over it's time to start testing and checking for mites.  I put sticky boards under all 8 hives and in a couple more days I'll pull them and do a 24hr count (i.e. take the 3 day total and divide by 3).

I hope that mites won't be a major issue as most of my hives have had a break in brood rearing either as a result of swarming or queens being superseded. 

However the  actual counts were as follows:

MOBOT existing: >80

MOBOT swarm: 72

Backyard west: 18

Backyard east: >80

Diane's yard: >66

Ladue east (existing): 27

Ladue nuc south: 5

Ladue nuc north: 1

So that's really mixed!  I'm very pleased the two nucs are in great shape although I'm surprised (but happy) that the other existing hive in Ladue is also good. I wonder if this us because they are aggressive and prodigious propolis producers? In any event I reckon there will be no need for treatments here at least for now. I will but test again in a month or so.

As for the other hives, well the mature hives that came through winter have been hardest hit which I guess is no great surprise, so I'll have to treat these. The garden hives both came through the winter and have the heaviest mite loads.

So how to treat?  I really want to cage queens, but I think I have a great set up for trying no treatment (in Ladue), Queen caging (at home and in Diane's yard) and soft chemical treatment (MAQS at the gardens). It will be interesting to see how they all do.

STOP PRESS:
It looks like cooler weather is on the way (26C to 30C as of Wednesday July 24) for about a week - MAQS treatment to start then I reckon!