Strong hive FULL of bees. I'm running 8 frame equipment. Here's what I started with -
Super 3 (Some Honey)
Super 2 (More Honey)
Super 1 (Honey/Brood, the queen got up there while I had the excluder off. Moved her back down last week)
Deep (Brood/Pollen/Honey)
Medium (Brood/Pollen/Honey)
I tried to follow the Michael Bush method by facing the new hives toward the old location. Here's what I have now -
Super 2
Super 1
Empty Medium (New, foundation only to replace the one that I moved)
Deep (Spotted the queen in the box, she is GIGANTIC!)
Super 3
Empty Deep (New, foundation only to replace the one that I moved)
Medium (Brood)
Questions -
- Did I do this right/what are my chances for success? I have a bred queen that I'm going to load in the queenless hive tomorrow.
- I found swarm cells in the deep that still contains the queen. One or two are capped and the rest are open. What, if anything, should be done about this?
- Do I need to feed the queenless hive?
- Do I introduce the new queen the same way as in a package; rubberband the cage to a frame and let the workers eat through the candy?
I'm a little concerned about the empty spaces, especially in the small queenless hive with the deep box.
Thanks in advance!!
Michael Burton
Super 3 (Some Honey)
Super 2 (More Honey)
Super 1 (Honey/Brood, the queen got up there while I had the excluder off. Moved her back down last week)
Deep (Brood/Pollen/Honey)
Medium (Brood/Pollen/Honey)
I tried to follow the Michael Bush method by facing the new hives toward the old location. Here's what I have now -
Super 2
Super 1
Empty Medium (New, foundation only to replace the one that I moved)
Deep (Spotted the queen in the box, she is GIGANTIC!)
Super 3
Empty Deep (New, foundation only to replace the one that I moved)
Medium (Brood)
Questions -
- Did I do this right/what are my chances for success? I have a bred queen that I'm going to load in the queenless hive tomorrow.
- I found swarm cells in the deep that still contains the queen. One or two are capped and the rest are open. What, if anything, should be done about this?
- Do I need to feed the queenless hive?
- Do I introduce the new queen the same way as in a package; rubberband the cage to a frame and let the workers eat through the candy?
I'm a little concerned about the empty spaces, especially in the small queenless hive with the deep box.
Thanks in advance!!
Michael Burton