okb
03-28-2008, 07:23 PM
I had one hive of Russians that I left 1 medium super of honey on during the winter just in case. I checked it towards the end of Febuary and it was full of brood. I had 10 frames of brood in the deep below it as well. I remove all bees from the super, then placed a queen excluder under it. Then waited 24 hours and removed the super now with nurse bees on the brood and placed them on their own bottom board. They then began drawing queen cells on 3 of the frames. I then divided the super into 3- 2 frame mating nucs. Once the queens emerged I placed them along with all bees into 3-3 frame deep nucs and added 1 frame of capped brood ( Why some use all mediums ).
Once queens began laying they were placed in 5 frame nucs and now are taking off prety well for this time of the year.
They are superciding the queens because they were emergency queens I suppose and made from worker cells.
The queens are really short just about the size of the workers. Im sure they arent good queens. However, This was interesting to do and cant wait to see how they will do as the year goes on.
Once queens began laying they were placed in 5 frame nucs and now are taking off prety well for this time of the year.
They are superciding the queens because they were emergency queens I suppose and made from worker cells.
The queens are really short just about the size of the workers. Im sure they arent good queens. However, This was interesting to do and cant wait to see how they will do as the year goes on.