My first colony of bees has failed. I was advised to leave them alone for a couple of weeks to see if they would generate a new queen. The hive does have the capacity to sense when the queen is either absent or not laying sufficient eggs and will then create a new queen from an existing egg. It appears there weren’t any eggs at the right phase of development to make it happen. At the last inspection there was still no eggs, no larvae and all the capped brood had hatched with no new brood visible. There is no future for this colony and the existing bees will live out the rest of their short lives foraging and bringing back pollen for young that aren’t there. It’s very, very sad. I feel like I’ve let them down…
After discussing several options with my bee mentor, Gary, we agreed the best solution is to allow this colony to die because it would be too late in the season to introduce a new queen and it might endanger two colonies. He will be supplying a new mini colony called a nucleus towards the end of the month.
I’ve bought myself a Nuc box so his bees including the queen will be transferred on their frames into this polystyrene box to overwinter. I will be responsible for looking after them and nurturing them into 2020. Once the new colony is at full strength I will transfer them on their frames into my existing hive. To put a positive spin on this I will be able to use the Nuc box in the future when the bees create a new queen (they do when they’re not happy with the existing queen which causes them to swarm) and I can transfer the new queen into the Nuc. As you will notice there is a complete jargon surrounding bee keeping and I’ve still got a lot to learn.
It appears I’m going through a period of “bad luck”. I don’t believe in the superstition that bad things happen in threes however I hope my “luck” has changed. I’ve lost the queen; the MX5 battery went flat when it was parked for 5 hours at RSPB Bempton Cliffs; and I slipped on some wet, slime covered pavement when rushing to a U3A committee meeting. As I fell I put my hand down to break my fall and subsequently sprained my wrist. It hurt like hell for 24 hours but today it is a lot better. I still can’t pick up the kettle with my left hand but I can type. I’m grateful for the time I’ve spent in the gym over the last 6 months because without that upper body strength I think it would have been a lot worse.
