[Jethro21]

So I was gone for 2 weeks, came home and immediately checked my hives (8), of which several were in the early stages of building queens. I cut them out and added space for the hives to grow and today they were all doing well, no signs of desires to swarm.

But I got to thinking- I need a couple hives requeened as several are feral swarms I caught and I haven’t forked the $40 a piece for new queens.

So I wondered if there was some advice on rearing a few queen cells from the one domestic hive I have to try and intro some domestic queens? Is this doable and how?

Thanks for the advice and patience-
Jethro21

 

[Vance G]

mdasplitter.com

 

[Dwrizzol]

You might get more than you bargained for... You are in the middle of AHB territory.

 

[Jethro21]

You might get more than you bargained for... You are in the middle of AHB territory.

I feel confident I already have several ahb hives, but one of my hives with an Italian queen is the one I was thinking of.

 

[Richinbama]

Your queen will.be open mated with any drones available. Ahb, or what ever is around. I'd do a split with frame that has eggs and larve, brood. Give it a try . Ahb in your area? I'd get a queen from an area without ahb influence if you could. Good luck. And if you are open mating, why not use your cells on hand. You can always requeen if they are hot... you might just get lucky ... good luck

 

[Jethro21]

You might get more than you bargained for... You are in the middle of AHB territory.

I feel confident I already have several ahb hives, but one of my hives with an Italian queen is the one I was thinking of.

Let me clarify, I know you are cautioning that any queen will be open mated and a high chance of AHB results. I guess I’d hope the Italian gene would be present enough to offset some of the AHB traits.

But, I realize buying a queen would be more prudent

 

[Michael Bush]

>But, I realize buying a queen would be more prudent

In my experience it's the F1 crosses between EHB and AHB that are really vicious. I think it's more prudent to use local bees and select for gentleness.