New queen on the way, new empty hive- what next?

Your best bet is to cut off the side bars and bottom bar of a frame or 2 of the Langs. frame.
This will let them fit into a TBH. Then brush off some young nurse bees into the TBH on top
of these cut off frames. Put the new queen cage between the frames and you will have a new hive soon.
Be sure to tie the Langs frames onto the TB to extend their length before putting them in the new hive. If you
have a strong Langs hive now then you can brush off more young nurse bees into the TBH. This way they will
build new comb faster. If you have 2 deep then brush off as many nurse bees as you can. And don't forget to
feed them too.

If I follow you correctly, you no longer need this Queen. If that is the case I am willing to bet that if you Craigslist it for re-sale, someone out there in your neighborhood needs it quickly.

beepro said:

Your best bet is to cut off the side bars and bottom bar of a frame or 2 of the Langs. frame.
This will let them fit into a TBH. Then brush off some young nurse bees into the TBH on top
of these cut off frames. Put the new queen cage between the frames and you will have a new hive soon.
Be sure to tie the Langs frames onto the TB to extend their length before putting them in the new hive. If you
have a strong Langs hive now then you can brush off more young nurse bees into the TBH. This way they will
build new comb faster. If you have 2 deep then brush off as many nurse bees as you can. And don't forget to
feed them too.

Click to expand...

Thanks, great advice!

There are time when we need to expand our apiary a bit. Right now is the best time to do it
before the cold winter. The more you can expand now the better for next year's success.
Besides, TBH has a nickname call the honey cow. Good to know you can use her for a back
up just in case.

There was someone looking for a queen they needed one right now on another thread on this forum

On this forum there is always someone looking for a queen bee.
You are looking at all year long here. I'd say just to keep her for
expansion. You will never know.

How about creating your own "shook swarm" with the nurse bees from the Langs? Once your new queen for the TBH is here, go get some bees from your Lang hives. Set aside the Lang frame with their queen, then go thru the frames and gather the frames of open brood that have bees on them. These will be the young nurse bees for the most part that haven't been out of the hive. Once you have a bunch of these frames, take the new queen over to the TBH and hang the cage. Then frame by frame, knock/shake the nurse bees into the TBH. Add a feeder, and plug the holes with grass. Check back in a few days to see if you have new comb and a freed queen.

Jamie D said:

Problem is, I have Langstroths and the new one is a top bar. I would split, but a square peg is not going to fit into a round hole.
Ideas on how to get some bees to live with her in there? Do suppliers sell bees without queens? I've looked over Kelley's site. Nothing I can find. Any ideas welcome.
I ordered a queen and now discovered a new queen in my "queenless" hive!

Click to expand...

Remove a brood frame from your lang (one with eggs or uncapped brood). Cut the comb from the frame and attach it to your top bar with wax. Lay it in your lang hive and let the nurse bees re-populate it, then move it to your tbh.