Requeen or Combine

928 Views 4 Replies 2 Participants Last post by woodedareas, May 11, 2014

woodedareas

Discussion Starter · May 10, 2014

I checked all of my hives today and I have one that I believe is queenless. My eyes are older so I can never see eggs or find the queen but I watch the hives externally and look for brood. The hive has very little activity but does have a lot of bees. This hive was also very loud and agitated compared to the others. My hives are from packages that are 3 weeks old. They are really just getting going and we do not have a flow as of yet. My question is should I requeen or combine with another hive. I also see no queen cells on the frames, and if I did I would just leave them take their course.

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Oldtimer

· #2 · May 10, 2014

You don't say the hive has no brood but I'm assuming that's what you meant. If so, and it's been 3 weeks, probably best to combine it with another. That way you avoid the risks of attempting to requeen a hive that has been in a questionable state for 3 weeks, plus the bees can get right to work supporting the new queenright hive. I would recommend placing a queen excluder between the two hives for the first couple of weeks, just on the off chance that the queenless hive has a virgin or something that may kill your good queen. Unlikely, but does happen from time to time.

If you wanted the extra hive, you could get a new queen some time down the track and re-split this hive.

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woodedareas

Discussion Starter · #3 · May 10, 2014

I appreciate your suggestion. The hive has no brood. I like the idea of a queen excluder.I have never had much luck with queen excluders as they also tend to exclude bees but it makes a lot of sense in this situation.
Thanks

Oldtimer said:
You don't say the hive has no brood but I'm assuming that's what you meant. If so, and it's been 3 weeks, probably best to combine it with another. That way you avoid the risks of attempting to requeen a hive that has been in a questionable state for 3 weeks, plus the bees can get right to work supporting the new queenright hive. I would recommend placing a queen excluder between the two hives for the first couple of weeks, just on the off chance that the queenless hive has a virgin or something that may kill your good queen. Unlikely, but does happen from time to time.

If you wanted the extra hive, you could get a new queen some time down the track and re-split this hive.