After doing a lot of research and speaking with local old timers in our bee club, I decided to give a shot at seeing if a couple of my hives can raise their own queens. I recently added a 2nd super to a couple of my overwintered hives that appear to be doing extremely well with a great population of bees.
I pulled a frame of mixed brood that the queen was on, a frame of capped brood with bees and shake of another frame of bees along with a mixed frame of stores over to a 5 frame deep nuc. One of the hives had a couple of queen cells being constructed with larvae on a couple of frames, so, I think I got lucky on the timing which was the 4th of April. I did make sure there were mixed brood and eggs left in both hives as well. I brought both nucs from that yard over to the house yard and will keep them here for a week and then move them back to the original yard only on a different hive stand. I will then transfer them to a double 10 frame medium hive with equal amounts of drawn comb and foundation frames. These 2 queens are way ahead of the other hives so I would like to get daughters from them to requeen my other hives.
With that being said;
When can I check the now queen less hives to see if queen cells are capped and if so, can I pull a frame or remove a couple of queen cells over to start nucs with a couple of frames of bees and a frame of stores ensuring that I leave a couple of capped cells in the original hive? I am figuring around the 13th of Apr if my math is correct, I should see capped queen cells.
Second, when I move the 2 nucs over to 10 frame hives, is it recommended that I put a feeder on them even though we have a flow going?
Third, is there a way to raise queen cells in the nucs by overcrowding? if so, can I just remove the queen and a frame of bees to another nuc with an empty comb and frame of stores with a couple of foundation frames and keep this pattern going throughout the flow?
Thanks for any thoughts, successes or recommendations.
I am in upper South Carolina....
I pulled a frame of mixed brood that the queen was on, a frame of capped brood with bees and shake of another frame of bees along with a mixed frame of stores over to a 5 frame deep nuc. One of the hives had a couple of queen cells being constructed with larvae on a couple of frames, so, I think I got lucky on the timing which was the 4th of April. I did make sure there were mixed brood and eggs left in both hives as well. I brought both nucs from that yard over to the house yard and will keep them here for a week and then move them back to the original yard only on a different hive stand. I will then transfer them to a double 10 frame medium hive with equal amounts of drawn comb and foundation frames. These 2 queens are way ahead of the other hives so I would like to get daughters from them to requeen my other hives.
With that being said;
When can I check the now queen less hives to see if queen cells are capped and if so, can I pull a frame or remove a couple of queen cells over to start nucs with a couple of frames of bees and a frame of stores ensuring that I leave a couple of capped cells in the original hive? I am figuring around the 13th of Apr if my math is correct, I should see capped queen cells.
Second, when I move the 2 nucs over to 10 frame hives, is it recommended that I put a feeder on them even though we have a flow going?
Third, is there a way to raise queen cells in the nucs by overcrowding? if so, can I just remove the queen and a frame of bees to another nuc with an empty comb and frame of stores with a couple of foundation frames and keep this pattern going throughout the flow?
Thanks for any thoughts, successes or recommendations.
I am in upper South Carolina....