The Honeybee Wranglers » Q2 http://www.littleluceyfarm.com/honeybees Trying to get a handle on these amazing creatures Mon, 16 May 2016 20:53:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.35 Status of Q2 Cleopatra http://www.littleluceyfarm.com/honeybees/index.php/2014/07/status-of-q2-cleopatra/ http://www.littleluceyfarm.com/honeybees/index.php/2014/07/status-of-q2-cleopatra/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2014 14:39:12 +0000 http://www.littleluceyfarm.com/honeybees/?p=474 To recap Q2, we missed the emerging of the q2 queens by about 1 day and they all emerged and were killing each other or all loose in the hive, or something. By the time we came to pick up the queen cells to put them in the nucs, they were out. We re-assembled the nurse hive and closed it up. I moved this hive to the Garst farm on Sunday July 6th, 2014. It is a deep with mostly medium frames build out to deep depth.

Update: July 18, 2014

Liz and I went over to the Garst farm this evening to see if one of the Q2 queens had survived. This is not a given, as when many queens emerge, they can kill each other, leaving no one standing. Normally, queens hatch sequentially, and the first hatchling will try and kill the others before they hatch. During swarming season, the workers may protect some cells so that there are virgins for several waves of swarming.

We opened the hive and there was fresh brood: larva in an ok pattern. And some capped brood. There were plenty of bees. There were plenty of stores and everyone seemed content. We did not see the queen: this is much more difficult in the evening when the hive is so full of bees.

So there is one Cleopatra Q2. Waiting to be marked and photographed.

We also looked into Liz’ nuc and I tried to take a picture with my phone, but could not focus. I am sure she will post about here results.

 

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