One cell Hanging in there
I have 4 hives, one has been queenless since Christmas, likely since Thanksgiving. I added a frame of brood back November, and added some frames with small patches of capped brood over the last month. Added a frame about 2/3 full early March and the brood froze. Should have known better from reading here. But some of those survived.
The hive is in a medium with some stores, feeding light syrup. Was planning to dump in to a split or add a split to it sometime soon. But while fixing comb on frames (pieces placed in after cut outs in fall) I broke a half of a frame of comb out in my strongest hive. It had just a few capped brood plus some eggs and larvae on about 1/3 of each side. Well I shoved it in the weak hive hoping they would salvage something. I have enough bee on each side of one frame that would be covered with a coffee cup saucer. Well it hatched the capped brood, and they capped maybe 20 of the larger larvae. Then made a queen cell. While doing this, they consumed all the other larvae. It was capped and should be hatching this weekend if my dates are right. It is huge, much larger than my queen cells the hives made last year.
If she makes it through mating, I will add a frame of capped brood into the hive at the end of the month or mid april. Don't want waste any more brood.
Now I am really excited, my hive number might not be opps 3 but really 4. Letting everything else build so I can do a few splits.
Just thought I would share.
The hive is in a medium with some stores, feeding light syrup. Was planning to dump in to a split or add a split to it sometime soon. But while fixing comb on frames (pieces placed in after cut outs in fall) I broke a half of a frame of comb out in my strongest hive. It had just a few capped brood plus some eggs and larvae on about 1/3 of each side. Well I shoved it in the weak hive hoping they would salvage something. I have enough bee on each side of one frame that would be covered with a coffee cup saucer. Well it hatched the capped brood, and they capped maybe 20 of the larger larvae. Then made a queen cell. While doing this, they consumed all the other larvae. It was capped and should be hatching this weekend if my dates are right. It is huge, much larger than my queen cells the hives made last year.
If she makes it through mating, I will add a frame of capped brood into the hive at the end of the month or mid april. Don't want waste any more brood.
Now I am really excited, my hive number might not be opps 3 but really 4. Letting everything else build so I can do a few splits.
Just thought I would share.
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