Apidea query

[Bridget]

Stacks of stores and not much room to lay so took out one of the store frames and gave her an empty frame. This apidea had a previous queen that disapeared leaving some chalk brood behind. On inspection of the store frame I could see eggs laid on top of the sunken sealed chalkbrood. Is this common if the Queen runs out of space? Should I be thinking of moving her to a Nuc? I would prefer to wait another week as I don't have many young bees due to supercedures . It's been about 4 weeks since she emerged?

[Jon]

If you have not already done so you could remove the feeder and put in 2 more frames to give the queen more room to lay, preferably frames with comb already drawn. I have never seen a queen lay eggs on top of chalkbrood mummies. Usually a cell has to be spotless before a queen will go near it.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Jon, my lovely new Irish queen lay some eggs in a few cells half-filled with pollen - but I think she was also short of space. I put a new drawn comb in the nucleus, but the bees have almost filled it by the time she emerged from her cage. Kitta

[Mellifera Crofter]

No, one of my other new queens also laid some eggs on pollen and she had loads of space - but at least it's pollen, and not chalk brood as with Bridget's queen.
Kitta

[honeylover]

Hi Bridget,

I treat an Apidea as a 'mating nuc' only, in other words as soon as the new Q has proved herself I place her in a more conducive environment, I would not keep her any longer than absolutely necessary in an Apidea, if the cells have anything except pollen and honey in them, I discard the frame. The bees will draw out the fresh foundation pdq if they have a Q who is ready to lay. My thoughts, others may differ.

HL

[busybeephilip]

I've never ever seen queens laying in cells containing pollen - very strange

Any chance of showing us a picture

[Mellifera Crofter]

Neither have I, BB Philip, until a few days ago and then again today, but a different and unrelated queen.

I'll try to keep a camera handy next time.
Kitta

[Bridget]

Jon - I don't have that sort of feeder in the apidea. It's at right angles to the frames.
Thought I might have been imagining things Kitta, glad you've seen it too.
If the weather is better tomorrow ( can't believe it will be worse) I will see if she has started to lay in the empty frame . I agree it's time to move her to a nucleus but I don't have a lot of young bees. I will give that a go at the weekend. Thanks to all.

[Bridget]

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/08/27/52c65785aada296f03ffebfa89813038.jpg

Picture of the eggs laid on top of pollen as mentioned earlier. Same queen but she is now in a nucleus.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HJBee]

Oh dear

[Mellifera Crofter]

Nice photo, Bridget. Clearly eggs on pollen.
Kitta

[Jon]

I also saw a couple of eggs on top of pollen for the first time this week. Never seen that before so not sure what is going on. Very curious.

[busybeephilip]

Well I'll bee.....eggs on pollen - its a first for me. Those bees are just not reading the books!

This must be a genetic trait of your bees Jon

[Jon]

Don't think so. But it's the first time I ever saw that for myself.

[Adam]

A sign of congestion Jon?

[Bridget]

Well I'm in good company if Jon has the same occurrence - I was going to call it a problem but not sure if it is? It will be interesting to see if they develop though not sure they will have room. I'll try and take more photos. Certainly no congestion in the nuc - that frame was just drawn comb when I put it in a week or so ago and they have only put pollen in it.
BTW who ever it was that suggested filling a frame with syrup for a nuc that needed stores and stores close to them - what a great idea, it worked really well.

[Mellifera Crofter]

... This must be a genetic trait of your bees Jon


A sign of congestion Jon?

That's No to both suggestions, BB Philip and Adam - see my posts 3 and 4. The first was one of Jon's queens, but the second one of my own with loads of space.
Kitta

[mbc]

That's No to both suggestions, BB Philip and Adam - see my posts 3 and 4. The first was one of Jon's queens, but the second one of my own with loads of space.
Kitta

I agree, I think it is most often seen when there are fewer bees or the bees are older and less geared up for clearing a bit of nest space for the queen to lay, sometimes early in the season when the foragers are packing in pollen before decent numbers of young house bees hatch, and again I see it later in the year in mating nucs that have been a while without new young bees hatching. It takes a while for the colonies to sort themselves out to have normal looking brood and it can give the pattern a mighty strange, almost drone layerish, look before the nest re-establishes a more conventional look. Mini nuc frames are often ruined by it as they never get to the strength to properly clear the cells out , as the emerging bee from such a cell leaves a cocoon behind making the pollen quite useless and the cell in need of a bit of housekeeping. Such cells will sometimes result in very hard pollen the bees cannot remove.

[gavin]

It has been a great year for red mason bees. These queens just fancy trying it their way for a change. Doesn't work. Not enough mud in a honeybee colony.

I'm going to get a name for unhelpful posts if I'm not careful .....

[Mellifera Crofter]

I think it is most often seen when there are fewer bees or the bees are older and less geared up for clearing a bit of nest space ... and again I see it later in the year in mating nucs ...

That seems like a good explanation, MBC - my Irish queen was in a nuc and the other one in the daughter hive of an AS, and Bridget's was in an apidea.


... These queens just fancy trying it their way for a change. Doesn't work. Not enough mud in a honeybee colony.

If I have time ( ... if ...) I want to build a straw bale hive (not a skep) - there'll probably be lots of mud in there.
Kitta