This is a comb from a mating nuc which we ran without frames as a trial; it may represent a change of approach for us in future years as it presents a lovely option for growing the colony on into a larger hive....
Yet again we have a scratch-built comb with the cell walls orientated opposite to the 'text book' position. This is a comb from a mating nuc which we ran without frames as a trial; it may represent a change of approach for us in future years as it presents a lovely option for growing the colony on into a larger hive.... By using top-bars we're able to transfer the mating nuc combs into empty frames, the bees then follow the existing comb and fill out the frame. At a later point these unwired combs can be replaced but initially they present an opportunity to create new colonies very cheaply
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Following on from our last post, things are progressing nicely; cell opened and queen at large. She'll be left well alone for a couple of weeks now -there's not a lot we can do but wait.
The weather has been such that we're seeing queens laying well within a couple of weeks of emerging so hopefully all will go well for these too. Most of this batch are the same colouration although I've spotted one with much stronger orange although she has the same striping. Spent some time transferring queen cells into their mating nucs today, this batch will hopefully mate as successfully as the previous ones; such great weather for getting queens mated.
You'll notice that we don't use the plastic cell cups which are so popular these days; nothing against them but I can make wax cups as quickly as I can clean the plastic ones and I get a lot more enjoyment out of making them than I ever did when I had to clean the plastic ones. Also, I'm guaranteed to loose the plastic cups the moment that I put them down somewhere! |
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