[Bailey11]

I found capped and uncapped swarm QC's in one hive yesterday. I wanted to try out my queen castle, so I moved a frame of food, one of brood (not much brood on this frame, just a little capped) and one empty drawn frame to castle. I cut out the QC and put it btwn 2 frames but forgot to shake in any extra bees. This QC was capped. There really wasn't a lot of bees in with the cell. Hopefully they will be able to keep the temp. The frames were mediums. Thinking most of the bees will venture back to parent hive and leave very little in the castle. Temps around 50-60 this week with nighttime lows in 40s and rain. Did I screw up? What do you think?

 

[snl]

Did I screw up? What do you think?

You made a mistake. The castle needs more bees and it needs feed (nectar or syrup). Shake some more nurse bees in there ..(quickly) and put on some feed. Hopefully the cell will take. That cell needs to be kept at least 90 degrees and the nurse bees need food...........

I don't know what size "castle" you have but a small 1/2 frame size four frame castle needs at least 2-3 soup can size, nurse bees...

 

[Daniel Y]

Last year I brought several capped cells into the house and placed them next to a desk lamp. It was warm enough to let the queens emerge. You are still going to want a better place for eh queen to get started. More bees for the most part.

 

[merince]

Shake in some more bees.

 

[Bailey11]

I figured. Thanks for the replies. I am using the brushy mountain med queen castle with the dividers. Pouring rain now and near future doesn't look too great either for manipulating hives. Got soo excited yesterday being able to do my first spring inspection on a couple of my hives and didn't take the time to think it through in the moment. Live and learn.

 

[ruthiesbees]

I put 2 of my capped QC inside the house in 2 separate hives to let the queens hatch out. One had a very minimal amount of bees. I did have cut comb honey to give them while they were cooped up. One group was in the house for 10 days. Other group, which had a lot more bees, for 4 days. Both did fine. I'm not advocating trying it with a small amount of bees, but don't throw it away just because you are told there aren't enough bees. The bees don't read beesource

 

[Michael Bush]

Once it's capped the only remaining issue is heat. So it depends on how cold it is at night and how many bees there are. If the weather is hot it doesn't take very many. If the weather is frosty at night it takes a lot more.