The 3 tallest have 4 supers each and are called Red, Y/B, and Silver (ident. by coloured stones in front). These are my strongest colonies and may be planning to swarm. Red and Silver have 3 year-old queens (marked blue for 2015). B/Y has a white marked Q (emerged 2016). Gets complicated doesn't it? Anyway, on 2nd July inspection this is what I found and did.
Red: expected swarm preps. Found queen after going through 2x. Plenty of
eggs, larvae and capped brood. Plenty of laying space and pollen stores.
The bees were polite and nice, so I decided to leave them alone.
Y/B: Expected swarm prep. No sign. No queen cups or q.cells. Saw Q. laying - nice even combs. I gave them a super of Manley frames (self-spacing) 2 weeks ago (as an experiment) but they are not storing any nectar
in them - yet? Left them alone!
Silver: expected this colony to be OK. BUT - found about 8 nice Q cells, some with larvae, some capped. Set up an artificial swarm by moving Q., now very slim, into a poly-nuc. This exciting saga.........to be continued.
Will Queen Bee manage to stop Blue Queen swarming with Silver workers?
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