Hiving 20 Packages

[Solomon Parker]

Drove 9 hours to pick up 20 packages at Koehnen, got back, and went to work installing them. Got stung six times, but strangely no swelling. A couple of queens got out of their cage. A carniolan queen after I found her was being fed by workers, so I left her thinking she was doing ok. One Italian queen got out, and when I found her she was being balled, so I put her back in her cage. I have a package that had two queens, one as a spare, I am wondering what to do with it, I left both queens in the hive with the rest of the bees and I will release them sometime, which ever one lives will be queen I guess, unless I have a problem with another queen somewhere. Got lots of pics, as soon as they get developed, they will be on www.allnaturalhoney.com Pics include ones of my new hive upper entrance design and my hot pink hives.

[Michael Bush]

You could always split one package to use both queens. If you baby them they should do all right. Of course with that small a swarm you may want to use a 5 frame nuc.

[hoosierhiver]

i agree with michael,use both the queens and put them in nucs if you have them.

[Michael Bush]

The nice thing about having the queen in a nuc is you still have a spare queen. You can always combine the nuc with an established hive that needs requeening, later.

[Solomon Parker]

I think I will wait til I know I have 20 good queens before I start messin around.

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Sol Parker
Southern Oregon Apiaries

[Russ]

I picked up my replacement "Nuc" last evening, brought them home after dark last night and they are out bringing in Pollen today like gangbusters. Queen is supposed to be Carnolian. Starting over in S.E.Ks. Dale