[Elwood]

Today I was ready to install some queens, when I looked through the hive I found a new young queen that the colony had made. I decided to pinch her because her genes could not possibly be as good as the queens I had purchased (right)? but before I could grab her she started piping, her song sounded so forlorn yet strong and sweet at the same time, I was just too moved to act against her. God bless her, "long live the queen".

Then on the next stop it happened again, word must be getting around that I'm a pushover. Whatever,,, I'll wear that. The second one would walk around and the rest of the colony seemed to just hesitate and defer to her while she would walk a few steps then press herself against the comb and let out a beautiful little song that sounded a lot like a mother hen but higher pitched. All the bees seemed to stop and listen. It was like that picture of a married couple digging potatoes and stopping to listen to the Angeleus.

I'll find somewhere else to use the queens.

 

[Buffalolick]

Good for you Elwood. Culling is the hardest thing in the world to do, be it bees or chicks or whatever livestock you may be raising. I have a hard time doing it even when I know it's the right thing to do. I say make Nucs! Maybe they will be awesome queens after all.

 

[Beeslave]

With your thumb and index finger-crrrrunchhhhhh,but only after they have proven to be unworthy.

 

[Michael Bush]

I drop her in a jar of alcohol and use it for swarm lure. I have a jar full of them...

 

[Batman]

I drop her in a jar of alcohol and use it for swarm lure. I have a jar full of them...

How do you use her for a swarm lure? Wouldn't the alcohol kill her scent?

 

[Michael Bush]

The alcohol absorbs her scent. I take a q tip and dip one end in lemongrass essential oil and the other end in the "queen juice" (the alcohol with the queens in it) and drop that in the bait hive.

 

[Throttlebender]

The alcohol absorbs her scent. I take a q tip and dip one end in lemongrass essential oil and the other end in the "queen juice" (the alcohol with the queens in it) and drop that in the bait hive.

Do you crush the queens before you put them in the alcohol or drop them in whole?

 

[wolfpenfarm]

deleted

 

[Throttlebender]

Today I was ready to install some queens, when I looked through the hive I found a new young queen that the colony had made. I decided to pinch her because her genes could not possibly be as good as the queens I had purchased (right)? but before I could grab her she started piping, her song sounded so forlorn yet strong and sweet at the same time, I was just too moved to act against her. God bless her, "long live the queen".

Then on the next stop it happened again, word must be getting around that I'm a pushover. Whatever,,, I'll wear that. The second one would walk around and the rest of the colony seemed to just hesitate and defer to her while she would walk a few steps then press herself against the comb and let out a beautiful little song that sounded a lot like a mother hen but higher pitched. All the bees seemed to stop and listen. It was like that picture of a married couple digging potatoes and stopping to listen to the Angeleus.

I'll find somewhere else to use the queens.

A poets heart

 

[sqkcrk]

If she is laying a good pattern of eggs in abundance, why change queens? I don't requeen, I make splits. Sometimes I find a queen who isn't doing a good job, so I replace her. But not very often.

 

[Michael Bush]

I drop them in whole. They die instantly.