Alright, so I tried to call a local bee place, the place I actually bought my nucs from in fact. Everything was going good until I started getting swarm cells in my stronger hive and supersedure cells in my weaker one. I admit, I did make a mistake. The weak one had a supersedure cell that I cut out. Put it in a tupperware container on top of the tv. The next day she hatched out! I did not think I could keep her alive very long to introduce her nor did I have the time to try and bank her. So I made her into queen lure.
I cut out all of the cells I could find in both hives. Being careful not to try and puncture the queen cell itself. That night, I made a frame for queen banking. Here is mistake #2, I think. I did what I thought I needed to do, to relieve the swarm impulse. I took the makeshift queen bank, put it into my weak hive and thought I could get them to take care of them when they hatched. Well, I think since the original queen was still in there, they were tearing them down. At this time, I also made a split off of the stronger one. Put one of the cells into the nuc box with some frames.
A week later, I checked them on this past monday.
I think I had the queen from the strong hive on a frame when I put it into the nuc box. As I checked it and there is a laying queen. No way that cell could hatch that quick and be laying, right? So I think she tore down the cell I had in that nuc box. Now, the strong hive is queenless because of it, and I counted 9 cells in it. The weak hive, I think the queen must have died or was killed. Could they have swarmed? I counted 18 cells in that hive.
By doing the math, and assuming the bees used newly laid eggs and not eggs at the 3 day mark, next tuesday is when I'm thinking they will hatch out. When I looked at them, they were already capped. So this had to of happened after I did the last inspection the week before or the day after that inspection.
So I was thinking of my options, tell me what you guys think.
1. Take the laying queen and introduce it back into the strong hive. Get her to start laying in a bigger box than 5 frames. Take the frames from the strong hive and put it into the nuc box the queen came from. Take the cells from the weak hive and some bees and stores and put it into another nuc box. Order a queen for the weaker hive and I should have 2 laying hives again with 2 nucs as a split.
2. Do all the above mentioned except, dont order a queen for the weaker hive and do a combine instead for one strong hive.
Right now, the clover in my field is flowing and I want to make the most of it. So I'm wondering if option 2 is better as I think I could make better use of a strong hive for the flow and split later?
Well, I'll let you guys tell me what you think is best... Thanks for the advice!
I cut out all of the cells I could find in both hives. Being careful not to try and puncture the queen cell itself. That night, I made a frame for queen banking. Here is mistake #2, I think. I did what I thought I needed to do, to relieve the swarm impulse. I took the makeshift queen bank, put it into my weak hive and thought I could get them to take care of them when they hatched. Well, I think since the original queen was still in there, they were tearing them down. At this time, I also made a split off of the stronger one. Put one of the cells into the nuc box with some frames.
A week later, I checked them on this past monday.
I think I had the queen from the strong hive on a frame when I put it into the nuc box. As I checked it and there is a laying queen. No way that cell could hatch that quick and be laying, right? So I think she tore down the cell I had in that nuc box. Now, the strong hive is queenless because of it, and I counted 9 cells in it. The weak hive, I think the queen must have died or was killed. Could they have swarmed? I counted 18 cells in that hive.
By doing the math, and assuming the bees used newly laid eggs and not eggs at the 3 day mark, next tuesday is when I'm thinking they will hatch out. When I looked at them, they were already capped. So this had to of happened after I did the last inspection the week before or the day after that inspection.
So I was thinking of my options, tell me what you guys think.
1. Take the laying queen and introduce it back into the strong hive. Get her to start laying in a bigger box than 5 frames. Take the frames from the strong hive and put it into the nuc box the queen came from. Take the cells from the weak hive and some bees and stores and put it into another nuc box. Order a queen for the weaker hive and I should have 2 laying hives again with 2 nucs as a split.
2. Do all the above mentioned except, dont order a queen for the weaker hive and do a combine instead for one strong hive.
Right now, the clover in my field is flowing and I want to make the most of it. So I'm wondering if option 2 is better as I think I could make better use of a strong hive for the flow and split later?
Well, I'll let you guys tell me what you think is best... Thanks for the advice!