[juzzerbee]

Overwintered hive still has to start laying. Haven't really looked for queen but have not found any eggs, only a few drones capped about 2 weeks ago. No eggs AT ALL as of yesterday. Really late Spring here and things are finally starting to sprout(last week). What to do with this possible queenless hive?

I have 3 packaged hives(this year) going as well. Just added the second medium hive body to each of them yesterday. I am "expecting" to get 2, 5 frames nucs yet this year as well. If any of this could help me out.

I thought to pull a frame of eggs/larvae from one of the packaged hives and place it into the possible queenless hive, but decided against it since I didn't want to mess up the good work they have been doing and the queenless hive is in deep hive bodies not mediums. Thanks, juzzer

 

[Michael Bush]

A frame of eggs is little investment for the donor colony. The queen can lay far more than they can raise. Give them a frame of eggs and young brood every week for three weeks and set them right.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm

 

[juzzerbee]

Is there a good time that I should remove a frame from the strong hive during the hive body build up? Meaning, the strong hive just received their 2nd medium hive body just a day ago and I am planning to run 3 mediums for the brood nest.
And...since the frame would be coming from a medium and being placed into a deep, is there anything that I should/shouldn't do? Thanks, juzzer

 

[WBVC]

I just pulled a frame of brood from a new package for an over wintered hive, with a marked Queen, that is laying no eggs.

If you have some drone brood some one must have been laying eggs recently.

 

[ginkgo]

If you add a medium frame to a deep they will likely build out comb under the frame quite nicely for you. Have for me.

 

[juzzerbee]

If you have some drone brood some one must have been laying eggs recently.

That is exactly what has stumped me!! Is it ever possible that eggs or brood can go dormant over the winter and emerge in the Spring? I am still hopeful that the queen hasn't started to lay for some darn reason, but at this point I don't think I should be holding my breath. Wondering if I should just do a REAL thorough inspection and search for a Queen or not????

ginkgo- I do have bottom bars on the frames, I assume they will just continue to build off of them and continue the comb down to "match" the depth of the surrounding deep frames??? Do you just leave the shallow frames in the hive permanently once they start to really build off of the frame or do you eventually replace it with a deep? Thanks everyone, juzzer

 

[juzzerbee]

This weekend I will be transferring a second frame of brood to the hive that appears to be queenless. I would like to take the frame from a different hive than I did from last time. If the queenless hive is Italians, is it okay to put a frame of Carniolian eggs into the hive? Thanks, juzzer

 

[juzzerbee]

A frame of eggs is little investment for the donor colony. The queen can lay far more than they can raise. Give them a frame of eggs and young brood every week for three weeks and set them right.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm

This weekend I will be transferring a second frame of brood to the hive that appears to be queenless. I would like to take the frame from a different hive than I did from last time. If the queenless hive is Italians, is it okay to put a frame of Carniolian eggs into the hive? Thanks, juzzer

 

[Greg Lowe]

If it is queenless, the bees won't care what kind of eggs they have to work with.

If it has been queenless for a while and developed laying workers, then it may take several cycles of adding eggs to suppress the laying workers and get them to raise a queen.