[Flewster]

I have had a new package of bees (april 23 hive date) that refuses queens. They have been given 3 now and each one rejected. Each one was let out by the candy method. The last one was installed saturday before last and today she was not present nor were any eggs or brood. All my other hives are doing great. I had made a couple of splits off of some other packages and they are all doing great. So today I took a split made saturday before last (they accepted their queen great and she is a laying fool) and I did a combine with thhis queeless hive via the paper method. The split nuc I put it into a regular hive and put it on bottom then a sheet of newspaper with slits and then the old queenless hive. Did I do the right thing? Will they kill this queen also? How long until I can check them?

Thank you

Wayne

 

[Michael Bush]

Doing a newspaper combine has always worked for me except for occasional failures with laying worker hives. Still it works most of them time even with laying workers. Sure fire would be to take a nuc with a laying queen and put it on a double screen board for few days and THEN do a newspaper combine. I haven't had that fail yet.

 

[Flewster]

How long until I can check them?

 

[Michael Bush]

The sooner you check the more likely you'll upset them and set something off. Did you cut a slit in the paper or not? If you cut a slit they get done sooner. If you see chewed up newspaper out front they are pretty well combined and you could check then.

 

[Flewster]

I cut about 4 slits in the paper about 6 inches long......too much?

 

[Michael Bush]

Sounds fine. I usually only do one or none, depending on the strength of the hives being combined. If they are stronger I dont make slits because they will tear up the paper faster if they are stronger.

 

[Flewster]

IT WORKED!!!!!! I checked today and found that they had chewed their way through and that now they are calm as can be and the other queen is still OK and laying.......I am so happy......

 

[honeybeesonly]

am i the only one that uses marshmallows in releasing queens? basically i remember the cork (there is no candy) and stuff a sticky marshmallow up their and then position/hang the queen cage between two frames and then i don't bother them for several days to nearly a week. i haven't had any problems with this method. anyone else use this method? you can see me doing it on my website here: http://www.honeybeesonly.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=album_cat&cat_id=2&sid=52a6a8d8d641cafdb1d4f513a8894d37

or here: http://www.honeybeesonly.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=album_pic&pic_id=31

what do you think of this method?

ken

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Check me out at: http://honeybeesonly.com

 

[Michael Bush]

A marshmallow is what I use if there's no candy in the cage and I want a candy release. You are right. It works fine.

 

[BeeMiner]

Last year when I got two packages of bees the queen cages had no candy. The experienced beekeeper I got them from said to just release the queens into the hives cause the bees had been with the queens long enough to accept them. So that's what I did. When I was done hiving the second box of bees, I noticed a big bee with a colored dot perched on the side of the first hive. At that point I realized it was the queen and just about crapped in my bee suit. I caught her as gently as I could and placed her in the hive. That hive never did too well and I think I may have damaged her.

This year, I hived five new packages of bees and none of those queen cages had candy, either. I removed the cork from each and squished in a half a small marshmallow and hung the cages from two frames. The queens were released in a day or two and this year all my new hives runneth over with bees. They're all queenright and healthy. I learned my lesson - a little marshmallow and a little patience pays.

Mark