[psfred]

I'm having a weak, probably queenless hive robbed. I'm not sure I can save it -- saw some larvae being carried out today, so I suspect they are no longer organzied.

I'm thinking of taking in a distance away and shaking it out, then freezing and storing the honey (two shallows completely full, they did great this spring but failed to re-queen after swarming and I didn't have any brood to give them) until fall for my other hives, then make up a nuc from a variety of sources and put it where the old hive was.

I don't know how soon I can get a queen from Kelley's, I'll have to call on Monday. In the mean time I have the hive sealed up, for better or worse.

My Italian hive is flying like crazy, hopefully they aren't robbing someone else out! Lots of yellow pollen in the morning, but nectar (or honey) in the evening.

Any suggestions are welcome -- I'm getting fed up with losing hives this way.

Peter

 

[MDS]

Wow, lots to consider here and I'm sure you have considered everything. Suppose you have to find a way to get out in front of the problem, such as why the hive became weak to start with. I started paying more attention to making sure I had a good laying queen and catching it early if they become queenless. But then again you may already be doing that. I move a lot of eggs around if I suspect a queen issue, just in case.

 

[psfred]

Well, the hive swarmed this spring after making a huge crop of honey -- my fault, I should have pulled a split, but last year I tried too early and they absconded after being overun by hive beetles.

Only two hives (not counting the July swarm I'm trying to raise up -- they may get some bees and stores).

My other hive decided to supercede their queen about the time I realized I wasn't getting a new queen in the hive that swarmed, so there I was. No eggs, no queen, no time. I was waiting for the second hive to produce a nice frame of eggs and lost the gamble.

I will take it apart today, plenty of honey in there, etc. and put the stores on the other hive for safe-keeping (no upper entrance on that hive) and pull a split when I can get a queen.

My brother has two hives at his place, lost the queen in one this year (a common problem there, we have a terrible time keeping package queens alive). I'm thinking I'll get nucs in the future when possible, I suspect we have environmental problems here -- smack in the middle of farmland where everyone sprays stuff all the time.

Maybe next year my life will be less crazy and I can get things done on schedule. Had big plans for a garden this year, and have a large weed patch instead.

Peter

 

[biggraham610]

Good Luck Peter. Spring Splits raised me some nice queens. I too have problems with package queens. Hopefully I wont have to buy any more packages now. G

 

[MDS]

My brother has two hives at his place, lost the queen in one this year (a common problem there, we have a terrible time keeping package queens alive). I'm thinking I'll get nucs in the future when possible, I suspect we have environmental problems here -- smack in the middle of farmland where everyone sprays stuff all the time.

That's interesting, hope spraying in not the root cause, hard to change that but others have posted some ideas in the past.

Letting mine raise their own queens because they tend to supersede new queens that I get in packages/cages anyway. Running 12 hives so no big deal letting a couple get behind waiting for a queen to develop. Sometimes find a queen cell to move in from another hive to speed that up.

 

[psfred]

I would like to have at least six hives, that way I'm much more likely to have the resources I need. One is a disaster, two is only marginally better so far.

Live and learn!

Peter