OK, here's my story and time will tell if I screwed the pooch or end up with two for the price of one...
Friday- Installed package
Saturday- removed cork from queen cage, pierced candy, replaced queen cage.
Sunday- pulled lid, noticed near dead queen on top of inner cover being attacked. Crap!
Monday- picked up new queen AND read Michael Bush's website that a package will almost NEVER ball their queen UNLESS... there is a queen that was mixed in with the package inadvertently.
So, guess what- I checked and found there was already a queen in the package, so, here's what I did:
Took the new caged queen and two moderately populated frames from the new package and put both in an empty hive. Put a feeder on, closed the top entrance and stuffed grass in the lower entrance. I'm a sap for bees and couldn't bring myself to just pinch the new queen I got so I figured, why not see if they will accept her after a few days and build both throughout the summer? So, did I manage to kill both packages or do you think this will actually work. FYI part I- I did make sure I did NOT move the queen from the packaged hive. FYI part II- all are on drawn comb for a head start.
Friday- Installed package
Saturday- removed cork from queen cage, pierced candy, replaced queen cage.
Sunday- pulled lid, noticed near dead queen on top of inner cover being attacked. Crap!
Monday- picked up new queen AND read Michael Bush's website that a package will almost NEVER ball their queen UNLESS... there is a queen that was mixed in with the package inadvertently.
So, guess what- I checked and found there was already a queen in the package, so, here's what I did:
Took the new caged queen and two moderately populated frames from the new package and put both in an empty hive. Put a feeder on, closed the top entrance and stuffed grass in the lower entrance. I'm a sap for bees and couldn't bring myself to just pinch the new queen I got so I figured, why not see if they will accept her after a few days and build both throughout the summer? So, did I manage to kill both packages or do you think this will actually work. FYI part I- I did make sure I did NOT move the queen from the packaged hive. FYI part II- all are on drawn comb for a head start.