i have a few hives of feral bees,iv clip the queens wings so she cant fly,iv found this swarm on the ground 3 or 4 times,and other swarms that i brout in,iv order new queens to replace this queen and some others, my question is,who decides to leave,the queen or the worker bees,what is the best way to introduce a new queen to a hive thats been found on the ground this many times,i know this has probly been a popular subject at this time of year, but i really hate to lose any good queens. thanks any help is appreciated
I think it is the worker bees that decide. I am not sure thought but I think I remember reading it somewhere and you know, whatever we beekepers read is ALWAYS right!
They swarm. But they have to be pretty crowded and have a brood nest.
>thanks,am i wasting my time by requeening this hive.
I thought they were trying to swarm? Why requeen a hive that is swarming? They will requeen it. What you have to worry about is what to do with the swarm which it will do eventually with a virgin if you don't accomadate them with the old queen.
im sorry for the cofusion,i took these bee out of a house or somthing like that,i put the old comb with brood,some honey and pollen that was in the comb,they came out the next day,since the queen had her wings clip,they were on the ground, i put her back in the box,they were all right for 2 weeks or so,then they came out again when i looked in the box,all the comb was empty, no eegs or brood,so i order 4 new queens to replace this queen and 3 others,my thinking was,replace the all would be alright,am i wrong,is there somthing im missing, thanks for the help,
They are trying to abscond. Usually this means they are either being harrased by varmits (skunks etc.) or they don't like the smell of the hive. I'd put them in a different box. First spray the new box with Lemon pledge or get some lemongrass essential oil or some HBH.
If the frames have bees on them, frames and all. Is there any reason to believe the frames would smell like mice or some other bad odor? If not, then I'd put all the frames in. If they might have a bad odor, try some different frames.
i looked in yesterday,the queen was still in the box so i guiss she desided to stay after all,but the bees had a queen cell caped,i cut this out since i had already ordered a queen to replace the old queen (these bees were real aggressive,i was planing to requeen anyway just latter)i cleaned the hive and wiped it down with lemon pledge,i dont think varments were the reason,looked like when they came out the first time a moth went in,i found a couple of wax worms,they die,the worms not the bees.thanks michael bush,chef isaac.
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