Dang if I didn't lose a couple of queens trying to bank them for a few days. Wow! I dont know if the hive just flat out rejected them and didn't feed them. Or if they balled the whole cage. I guess the conditions changing from earlier in the year changed everything. All spring and summer I have been able to set a queen in a hive and they were kept up by the nurse bees. Now they don't want anything to do with taking care of a queen.
The first was a Single brood chamber with queen excluder 10 frame 3 deep. Lost 2 queens in it. Ive been feeding them and havent had an issue with nectar in any of the hives. Also pollen has been plentiful, I see lots of bee bread on the outer frames.Then tried a 3 deep 5 frame setup without an excluder but didnt leave the queen in. They started balling her. Then same with the last one. So now I have the queen in the house and hopefully I can keep her fed. Giving her a drop of honey every now and then and water on the screen. There has been lots of robbing attempts.
Those coolers I got work great for queen banking.
This is exactly what I do with extra queens - 1-2 cups of bees; a queen; a little feed..
Works great and is cheap.
May even get some work done while on hold - extra brood/combs.
Were you by chance putting queens of another type with a different kind? I think this can cause some issues. Like I just tried recently to bank 2 carniolan queens in an italian hive. I caught them before they were killed. But there was definitely rejection.
Also, maybe you could try with smaller hives next time?
Were you by chance putting queens of another type with a different kind? I think this can cause some issues. Like I just tried recently to bank 2 carniolan queens in an italian hive. I caught them before they were killed. But there was definitely rejection.
Also, maybe you could try with smaller hives next time?
That kinda goes inline with what GregV is saying too.And yes the first 2 were a Carnica and a Russian in a Caucasian hive.
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