[davlanders]

I've been working on getting a colony out of the eave of a house for the last day. I got all of the comb with brood/eggs into frames in a 5 frame nuc and dumped most of the bees into the nuc. When I went back today I found that there were quite a few bees in the nuc, but the queen has absconded into a tree with a swarm that is too high to reach. My questions are:

1) Is there any chance that this colony in the nuc will survive?

2) Will they make a new queen with the eggs that they have?

3) Should I buy a queen instead of waiting for them to make one?

4) I have a few other hives, should I put them into a full size box and add some frames of brood?

Thanks for any help available

 

[oregonsparkie]

Not know what the state of the brood is and if there is any that can be made into a queen cell.

I wouldnt take a chance and put the extracted brood into a small hive and merge the two to make a larger hive

 

[Michael Bush]

Some of the answer to your questions depend on what you want. I would guess there is some larvae young enough for them to raise a queen. Do you have any reason you LIKE the genetics of this cut out? If so, I'd let them raise a queen. If not, I'd buy one or combine them with one of your other hives.

 

[Michael Bush]

>1) Is there any chance that this colony in the nuc will survive?

There is a chance.

>2) Will they make a new queen with the eggs that they have?

More than likely.

>3) Should I buy a queen instead of waiting for them to make one?

If you don't care for the genetics of the bees you have, yes. If you like the genetics of the bees you have you can let them raise one. It will buy you a month of a laying queen to buy a queen.

>4) I have a few other hives, should I put them into a full size box and add some frames of brood?

That would certainly give them a good boost.

 

[davlanders]

Thanks so much for the replies.

There are multiple reasons I wanted to see if they would raise a queen.

1) I don't want to spend any excess money right now if they will do it themselves or if the hive is likely to fail.

2) They are very calm and have a nice brood pattern in their natural comb.

3) I am planning on requeening all my colonies in the spring, so I thought it would be easier to wait until then.

4) I like experimenting

I guess I'll see how it goes.

Thanks guys.

 

[davlanders]

Well, the extraction failed. The colony swarmed in the process and left. I brought the nuc home with the comb that had larva and sealed brood in it with the intent of giving it to one of my other colonies. I set it beside the house and left it for a couple of days because I got busy. Now the nuc box is full of bees and they are clumped around the entrance. Does this sound like a swarm moved in (not the original, it's more than 5 miles away)? Could they just be robbing it? The bees aren't rapidly flying in and out they are clustered on the front, which makes it seem odd.

I don't want to disturb them right now in case they did swarm in.

What do you think?

 

[Michael Bush]

>Now the nuc box is full of bees and they are clumped around the entrance. Does this sound like a swarm moved in (not the original, it's more than 5 miles away)?

No.

>Could they just be robbing it?

No. Robbers don't hang out.

>The bees aren't rapidly flying in and out they are clustered on the front, which makes it seem odd.

They are just hot. It's the bees from the nuc. Look inside and you'll see most of them are outside because of the heat. I have a lot of two meidum frame mating nucs that are the same right now. Lots of bees hanging on the outside.

>I don't want to disturb them right now in case they did swarm in.

They're fine. If you want check them in the cool of the morning or the evening and take a peek inside.

 

[davlanders]

I'll check them in the next day or two. I am just confused. I checked them the last two days and there were no bees in the nuc at all.

 

[oregonsparkie]

Sounds like the famous bee fairy...heheheh
Hope she can make a trip over here to.

 

[davlanders]

Well, I just looked in the hive after dark and there are more than 1000 bees inside. They didn't come with the hive and I can't imagine that that many hatched in the last 2 days from the comb that I put in. I guess I'll smoke them and do a full inspection during the daylight this weekend and see if I can find a queen and see what kind of shape the brood is in.