So I have four hives bought from nucs this year and wow have they done well. i put them in hives with predrawn comb and honey from the hives that i lost last winter. In just over two months each hive has filled two honey supers so fast that I had to extract already. Good news, now here is the trouble.
One hive swarmed and when i looked into two others they were producing swarm cells and supercede cells. In a bit of a panic i took out four frames from each hive one with a queen cell and put them in two nuc boxes. Not seeing a queen in either original hive I left a queen cell in each.
So if i accidentally made the right decision can i combine the two nucs if either do not have a queen yet? If they do produce queens and the hives produce queens is there any chance to get these nucs up and strong before winter?
When should i start looking for signs of a queen in all the hives? a week? two?
This is my third year beekeeping and each year is throwing up new and interesting problems!
Thanks in advance for any advice!
MCA
One hive swarmed and when i looked into two others they were producing swarm cells and supercede cells. In a bit of a panic i took out four frames from each hive one with a queen cell and put them in two nuc boxes. Not seeing a queen in either original hive I left a queen cell in each.
So if i accidentally made the right decision can i combine the two nucs if either do not have a queen yet? If they do produce queens and the hives produce queens is there any chance to get these nucs up and strong before winter?
When should i start looking for signs of a queen in all the hives? a week? two?
This is my third year beekeeping and each year is throwing up new and interesting problems!
Thanks in advance for any advice!
MCA