[seapro220]

Hello.


I made up 3 nuc splits Sunday a week ago in preparation of receiving some new VSH queens I'd ordered on Thursday. The queens were sent out and I received them on Wednesday and all 3 queens looked well. I placed them, in their cages into the nucs Wednesday am and quickly received what appeared to be a 'warm' reception by all the nucs. I checked on them Saturday afternoon to see their progression and 2 were almost out of their cages and 1 was already out. I looked around the hive to see where she might be and noticed what appeared to be a 'balling' of the new queen with 5 to 10 bees surrounding her. I tried to move the bees 'off' her - but they quickly covered her back. I also noticed that the attendants, or at least 3 of them were dead in the cage. Is it possible that the queen got released too early and they attacked and killed her? I tried to locate her yesterday but wasn't able to. I know, with 100% certaintenty that there wasn't a queen in this nuc split or the other 2 because of the following ..

nuc1 - the one in question - made up of new brood moved over
nuc2 - no queen for 2 weeks with new brood added
nuc3 - pinched unproductive queen.

I guess I can order another queen but was going to give all 3 nucs a few more days to see if I could locate the queens - but more importantly see if there is some eggs or larva before I order another one. I could also combine this nuc, but was hoping to get another nuc ready for overwintering ... just in case. I called the person I ordered the queens from and he suggested I wait a few more days and perhaps it's be ok. He said he'd work with me if there was an issue. What does that really mean, and what options do I have for the existing nuc - other that adding another queen. I don't believe it is the 'queen breeders' fault - just strange that I say this as I know there wasn't a queen in there and this isn't a 'swarm/supercedure' environment. I've always had Italian or Carnelian bees in the past, so don't know if this has any merit or not ...

thanks -

 

[brownkenvt]

Hi...

I've had a couple of similiar incidents this summer.

Which of the three, Nuc 1, 2, or 3 was the Queen balled in? Is is possible there were two queens working in the hive and you only pinched one? I'm told that there are often and old and young queen working side by side in a hive for a while. Maybe you have a young, hard to spot, young queen in that nuc already. Or perhaps she got released from the cage before they were really ready to accept her. Were you using push in cages, or the wooden or plastic cage she arrived in?

ken

 

[seapro220]

Hello, and thanks for the follow up. here's a little more about the environment -

Nuc1 was/is the Nuc in question. I'd tried to make a split and been adding some young brood for a couple of weeks but they never would 'make' a new queen on their own so I decided, after thoroughly going thru the hive several times (to be sure there wasn't a rouge queen or a worker-queen laying) to 'bulk' up the nuc with a couple more frames of capped brood and introduce a new queen. I checked all 3 nucs again before I added the new queens to be sure i wasn't making a mistake by adding another queen also. It's possible I had a rouge queen - but I doubt it.

Nuc3 - pinched queen and they seem to have accepted her w/o any issues.

the cages I was using was the 'standard' 1x3" wired shipping cages with the cork and cork/candy end that I've used in the past. It was set, like all others, upside down on top of the frames so the existing bees could get used to her, and feed if necessary during the customary 3 days before the candy is eaten all out and she's released.

 

[seapro220]

oops - double posted.