Tuesday, 20 August 2013

That sinking feeling

Off I went to the apiary light of heart and bright of spirit to take a super of capped
honey from Blue hive.  Now this is the colony that we artificially swarmed around 18th July.
The white queen (2011) settled in well and the workers were happily drawing the deep foundation
for her to lay her eggs in.I decided  to leave them all undisturbed for a few weeks. There were 2 supers
above the QX and last week I gave them some wet comb (10 combs from which the honey has been extracted).  Had a little peek in and saw the top super of honey was being capped.
Anyway, today I lifted the roof and took away the 'wet'combs which the bees had licked clean and dry.
Now for the golden prize - but "Oh, no!!" Instead of rows of white cappings I found sealed brood.
The first 2 I took out were drone brood so, ever the optimist, I told myself (and the bees) that we have
a laying worker whose ovaries have gone wonky.  "Oh Bother" I said words to that effect. So I took out the next comb which was full of beautiful, serried ranks of worker brood in perfect pattern.
And then, who did I see tootling happily around the comb but The White Queen!.
WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT (after momentarily panicking)?
Well here's what I did and we'll hope it works.
- Remove the drone comb and save it for the birds. Put 2 dry combs in the space.
-  Brush the Queen down into the brood box (now full of honey!)
- Replace the QX.
- Place the offending super on top (this brood will hatch out and join the workforce)
- Place the other super on top.
- Take away the dried "wet" comb.
- Close the hive up and say a little prayer.
QB ZZZ

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