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OK to add a frame with swarm cells on it (from another hive) to a queenless hive???

1288 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Michael Bush
So I just did this and I'm wondering if I should go put it back. I have a queenless hive. (That's another story) I just took a frame that contained 6 to 7 swarm cells (some capped some not) and put it in the queenless hive. Any reason this wont work out and that the queenless hive gets a new queen this way? Anyone ever tried this? I'm interested in your comments. Thanks
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I've done this numerous times. Sometimes it works; and then once in a while they tear the cells down and try to build their own. It's always worth a shot. It just depends how much of a hurry you're in for a mated queen.
MB says to use one frame of brood a week for 3 week and it should fix the problem.
It will work as long as the queenless hive has not turned into a laying worker hive. Like Zookeeper said its always worth a try. It's easier to requeen queenless hive with a queen cell than it is a mated queen sometimes.
>It will work as long as the queenless hive has not turned into a laying worker hive.

Even then it will work about half or more of the time...
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