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Hopkins method

2396 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Michael Bush, 
K
I am not a Queen breeder but need a Queen, Lost my Queen in a package. I hope this is best forums fo this post. Called and could not get Queen replacement at this time.
I have a strong hive that I can get some new eggs from, no eggs in package. I have read about Queen rearing on this site and Bush Farm.com using the Hopkins method. In my strong hive they are drawing foundation less comb. Could I move the fresh drawn comb to center of brood to encourage the Queen to lay eggs? Don’t know if I can confine Queen. Watch closely to get the right age eggs. Then move frame to my Queen less package and re-orientate as the Hopkins method suggests. Then allow the package workers to draw out the Queen cells.
Will it be a disadvantage to not destroy cells to allow for room between Queen Cells?
Or could I just grab a frame of open brood and orientate it over the Queen less hive and sort out the excess cells after formed? After formed cells should I put the frame in normal?
Thanks
Keith
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#2 ·
I think you're over-thinking this. You need one queen, not 100, right? So look for a frame with eggs in your queen-right hive, and put it in your queen-less hive, normal orientation. The bees will take it from there.

I'd wait about 4 weeks before disturbing them after that. Let them make a queen cell - you don't want to damage any queen cells by manipulating the frames too early - and let her emerge and mate and start laying so she's established before poking around.

:)
 
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#4 ·
Yup. Just make sure they are eggs, not larvae. That is how the bees have made replacement queens for ages, without our intervention.

Or you could combine the two hives (newspaper or shake out), and then do a split. Might work better, more bees in the new hive.
 
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