I'll be watching this, I'm pretty much in the same spot, except do have capped brood, and am trying to decide if I want to let the capped queen cell take over or introduce one myself. Reading your post made me check and make sure I didn't write it. All I can add is yes, introduce the queen pretty much like you did the first go round. Good luck!
New queen for honeybound hive
I have a hive that is honeybound. I noticed a decline a while ago, and now haven't seen any capped brood, larvae or eggs for 2 weeks. There have been what looks like 5 supersedure cells for at least 3 weeks, but they look like they were never capped.
I have a mated queen that I can put in this hive. I also have another hive that is thriving, so I can take a frame of brood and nurse bees if needed. I also have frames of drawn comb and some frames with only foundation that I can replace some of the honey with. What is the best way to do this? Since the honeybound hive is queenless, does the queen need to be introduced like when you install a new package?
I have a mated queen that I can put in this hive. I also have another hive that is thriving, so I can take a frame of brood and nurse bees if needed. I also have frames of drawn comb and some frames with only foundation that I can replace some of the honey with. What is the best way to do this? Since the honeybound hive is queenless, does the queen need to be introduced like when you install a new package?
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Are you certain the queen is not in there???? If truly "honey bound" , then that would explain why the queen isn't laying (no room), and changing queens won't fix that. You might try replacing a couple frames with drawn comb to give her room. Pull the honey frames up to the next box so they still have access to it.
I have a similar problem. What if all my drawn frames are in use and left with only undrawn EZ frames...still exchange out a few in the brood box? I've added supers with hopes they move some of the nectar up to clear some space for the queen. How likely is this?
Someone else will likely respond while I fumble with my keyboard.
The broodnest filled with nectar is a pretty good indication of hopelessly queenless. If the colony has a replacement queen in developement, they will normally hold cells open for the new queen when she is ready to lay. So, I'm betting they are queenless.
When the colony is hopelessly queenless, they will accept almost any queen offered. (Barring laying workers) If the queen you have available has some support troops to protect her for the first few minutes, I would combine them by placing the added group above the queenless hive. And I would use newspaper just for insurance.
Walt
The broodnest filled with nectar is a pretty good indication of hopelessly queenless. If the colony has a replacement queen in developement, they will normally hold cells open for the new queen when she is ready to lay. So, I'm betting they are queenless.
When the colony is hopelessly queenless, they will accept almost any queen offered. (Barring laying workers) If the queen you have available has some support troops to protect her for the first few minutes, I would combine them by placing the added group above the queenless hive. And I would use newspaper just for insurance.
Walt
Update:
I was pretty certain that the hive was queenless. Here's what I did. I took 2 frames with brood, bees and food from a healthy hive and put them in a nuc box with the new queen in a candy release cage. After 3 days there were no bees flying from the nuc (as I had expected), but the queen had not been released. I put the 2 frames of brood and the unreleased queen in her cage into the queenless hive. I moved some of the frames of honey to an upper brood box and replaced them with undrawn foundation. A week later, the new queen looks active and there are lots of eggs and young larvae. All of the new foundation is drawn, and there is plenty of room for the new queen. There are no swarm or supersedure cells. I am hopeful that this hive is coming back.
Thanks to all for the help.
I was pretty certain that the hive was queenless. Here's what I did. I took 2 frames with brood, bees and food from a healthy hive and put them in a nuc box with the new queen in a candy release cage. After 3 days there were no bees flying from the nuc (as I had expected), but the queen had not been released. I put the 2 frames of brood and the unreleased queen in her cage into the queenless hive. I moved some of the frames of honey to an upper brood box and replaced them with undrawn foundation. A week later, the new queen looks active and there are lots of eggs and young larvae. All of the new foundation is drawn, and there is plenty of room for the new queen. There are no swarm or supersedure cells. I am hopeful that this hive is coming back.
Thanks to all for the help.
Good job.. Great job explaining ... will make it easier for the next beek
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