Requeening question

1627 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by devil dog, Jul 28, 2014

devil dog

Discussion Starter · Jul 28, 2014

I have a hive at home I got frmo a trap out I started June 30th. They failed to successfully produce a queen their first attempt. I'm thinking it was my fault for a couple different reasons. I put another frame with eggs and brood and a few nurse bees in a week ago Saturday. There were queen cells last thursday. I ordered a new mated queen today as I don;t want them to have to wait for the new queen and mating flights etc.
Should I open the hive and remove the queen cells today so there is no chance of a queen already having hatched out? There has been such a long brood interuption the bees numbers seem to be getting quite low so I want to get things going as soon as possible. Thanks

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papa

· #2 · Jul 28, 2014

How many hives do you have? Can you get more frames and bees from another hive to get this trap out hive over the hump until your queen is mated and laying?

If the number of bees left is too low, even a mated queen will have a slow go of bringing up the population.

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devil dog

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 28, 2014 (Edited)

Just one other I started from a nuc I got May 11th. These bees were in a tree at a house where a child that was allergic lives. They were going to spray them. I Took a frame on day 2 June 25th and another July 19th after they were at my home. . My strong hive is getting to were they only have honey in the top deep and brood in the bottom. I have a medium on that hive they are not drawing out after 3 or 4 weeks. I don't have any drawn comb or I would rob another frame from the good hive. They have drawn out about half the empty frame I put in last week to replace the egg and brood frame I removed. If my stron hive were drawing comb well I would not be worried about taking another frame. My original hive seems to be pretty robust.
I ordered the queen already. It should ship tomorrow and I should have it wednesday or thursday. From Navasota Texas to Texarkana. My concern is the virgin queen will hatch out and they will kill the mated queen. However, if I cut out the queen cells and the new queen arrives dead or something then I will probably have to combine the two hives. I really wanted to give these bees an opportunity to make it. I figure this is my last chance to have this hive get started.

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USMCEOD

· #4 · Jul 28, 2014

DD... If you can afford a frame of brood and a frame of honey from the other hive taking one with queen cells out and starting another nuc, for a back up... if it goes well you'll end up with 2 nucs going into the fall bloom... but, you have to decide if you are falling back to a weaker position. I don't like to destroy queen cells if I can put them to use... Kinda like being between Iraq and a hard place. some what of a risk to break up your platoon into squads but next year you could end up with a small victory... Semper Fi

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devil dog

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 28, 2014 (Edited)

Thanks EOD. The queen cells are in the trapout hive. It is a ten frame deep. I had enough bees to fill it originally. After a month without a queen I could probably put them in a five frame nuc. I don't want their numbers to get so low they can't come back.
There were very few eggs and brood in the top deep of the good hive. It was almost all honey this weekend. It had a good brood pattern in the top deep last weekend. I haven't been into the bottom deep for quite a while. I usually close things up when I see eggs. I am afraid I might smash my queen. As strong as the first hive appears I guess I could pull the partially drawn frame from the upper deep and put it in place in the bottom deep after I take another frame of brood and eggs to put in the weaker hive. Is it OK to leave nurse bees on the frame when transferring eggs an brood to the new hive? I'm sure they could use the boost.

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USMCEOD

· #6 · Jul 28, 2014

If you just stick them in with bees who consider themselves a hive then they will probably kill the nurse bees, you could do a newspaper combine to give them some more bees, that's the way I do it now even if just one frame... I've killed a bunch doing that... but, if you combine frames with bees from different hives into a new box/location usually don't have much of a problem, cause nobody really have ownership if you're tracking..

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devil dog

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 28, 2014

I think I will risk taking a frame of eggs larva and brood from the bottom deep of my strong hive to put in the weak hive and move the partially drawn frame in the top down to the bottom and just put an empty frame with foundation in the top deep. That will give them some bees while waiting for the new queens cycle to get going. I also think I will remove the queen cells tonight. I don't want to rick a problem with the new queen. If the new queen doesn't pan out for some reason I guess I will combine what is left from the weak hive with the strong one.

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