[Beeball Coach]

My single hive gave me about 100 pounds of honey this spring and the number of girls is growing steadily. I bought a queen from Busy Bee and installed her today. Here's what I've done so far...

Took a new 10 frame deep with foundation and placed it on a SBB, removed one frame and hung the cage somewhere about in the middle. I took a full 10 frame deep off the original hive (it had 2 and 2 supers) and put it on top of the empty deep. I took the fuller of the two supers and put it on top of the two deeps with the new queen.

I did not locate the original queen so I'm hoping she's in the deep I left on the original hive.

Question:
What will prevent the bees from the 'relocated' deep from flying out and right back into the original hive since they're about 4 feet apart? Should I have located the new hive farther away?

How will I tell if the original queen is in the 'relocated' deep?
There's tons of bearding on the original hive. Perhaps I should switch and put the empty deep on top of the original deep?

Thanks,
Ed.

 

[D Coates]

How do you know you put the new queen in the queenless split? Is she released from her cage yet? Make sure you've got them in the right hives.

The workers will go to the original hive unless you move them over 2 miles away. I'd put an empty deep one the original hive to ensure you don't end up with a swarm from the original queen because they're feeling overcrowded because they have one deep but 90% of the field workers.

 

[Eyeshooter]

I would not have done the split and added a new queen without having found the original queen first. There's a 50/50 chance you just added a queen to a queen right hive. That will not be pretty. I also wait about 24 hours before adding the new queen. This way your hopefully queenless colony would have realized it was queenless and will give the new queen a better chance of acceptance.

I've successfully split a hive and left it in the same yard several times. I make sure I have 3-4 frames of brood in the new hive, place a lot of grass in the entrance and then place a pine branch in front of the hive. Once the bees clear the grass and come out of the hive, they immediately turn and reorient because of the pine branch. I know some of the field bees return to the original hive but all the nurse bees and some of the older bees stay. This has worked for me and my bees. No promises it will for others.

In any case, I agree with D Coates and would be concerned about possibly having just added a queen to an already queen right hive.

John

 

[Beeball Coach]

Ok. I just got back in. A few stings for the worse but, I got the girl out in time!
They were all over the cage. Killed all the nurse bees. I hope she's not damaged and will make it through the night till I can do it right tomorrow. Benedryl!!

Got some sound advise from Jack at Busy Bee. He said to go in and remove her right away because the top deep is about twice as likely to have the original queen.

The plan is to re-add the deep with the original queen to the other original deep and move it about 6-8 feet away and place the new queen in the new super with brood-laden frames in the same spot as the old hive. That way the field bees will come back and populate the new hive. Heavier super goes with the old hive in new location. Feed new hive.

Whew! Talk about love/hate!