I'd describe this as a qualified success. Last week I checked the hive and there were many many queen cells in the top half. This shouldn't be possible - there were no eggs, so all the grubs must have been > 5 days old. Which means my suspicion is probably correct - 90% of my swarm control problems over the years have probably been down to inadequately destroying queen cells. When destroying a queen cell you need to take the egg out of the comb and destroy it, not just wreck the wax structure.
Oh well, we live and learn.
This colony now has no queen cells in the top, 2 queen cells in the bottom (one possibly damaged, possibly not fatally), no eggs /anywhere/ and no queen. Oh, and they're properly pissed off :-/
Closed it up, will check again in 7 days.
However, it has been a lot easier to deal with and a lot closer to successful than previous years artificial swarms. I will persevere with the Demaree technique and see where it gets me.
No comments:
Post a Comment