Queens in Jeopardy - not the game show

[Joseph Clemens]

Do I look like I'm slipping>? A rhetorical question. A twist on the idea of relocating established mating Nucs, to ditch the older field bees just before inserting a new queen cell or introducing a virgin queen.

I discovered a potential, 'point of caution' when implementing the concept described above. <Am I being obtuse, yet?> I relocated a populous Nuc in order to ditch most of its field force, just prior to inserting a new queen cell into that Nuc. Unfortunately most of those bees drifted to the Nuc adjacent to the relocated Nuc and balled and killed their nice new queen. Uh oh, back to the "drawing board" on this one.

[Michael Palmer]

A twist on the idea of relocating established mating Nucs, to ditch the older field bees just before inserting a new queen cell or introducing a virgin queen. Uh oh, back to the "drawing board" on this one.

Do what I do....

Not sure how many mating nucs/bees you have. If a lot...

Staple a screen on the bottom of a hive body. Place a comb of brood in the middle, and 9 frames of foundation around it. Place an excluder shaker box on top...that's a hive body with wood bound excluder nailed on the bottom. Remove frames of bees from mating nucs, and shake bees into shaker box. The bees go down through excluder, leaving any possible queens above. Move this new "super package" to another yard. Give caged queen.

I usually have to do this once a season to my mating nucs, as they get too strong. Nothing like a 20 pound package of bees for drawing out foundation. Mine usually draw out 19 frames almost immediately!

[BerkeyDavid]

Great idea thanks Michael

[dcross]

Unfortunately most of those bees drifted to the Nuc adjacent to the relocated Nuc and balled and killed their nice new queen.

That's why I'm not a fan of switching a weak and strong hive to "boost" the weaker one:(