Good afternoon all - I am a first year beekeeper from Southeastern Pennsylvania (Delco) and would love some advice from the experts out here!
I started with two packages this April and they did both well initially. After about 4 weeks I noted the egg and larva production in one hive -my weak hive from here on- to drop, and as I saw less and less capped brood and some backfilling I decided to get a new (marked) mated queen and put the queen cage in the hive 9 days ago. Today I looked for the first time: Candy plug gone, queen out - but the queen I find in the hive is not marked. Also I see still no eggs and no larva. My best guess is that I missed a virgin queen or an advanced queen cell somewhere, and that the virgin queen won the royal battle. Or - could the marking have been cleaned off and she is the mated queen I introduced but she has no room yet as they are just about to clean out all the backfilled combs?
My other hive -the strong hive from here on- has been amazing. Queen is a machine, so much so that I had to put a third medium box (I only use mediums) on top 2 weeks ago. Did not check last week as I wanted to give the new queen some peace (and no smoke). Anyway - today I looked and the third medium super which I added 2 weeks ago is completely full - all 8 frames! Lots of honey and pollen but in the middle also lots of capped and uncapped brood. This queen is a machine! Alas - I will lose her soon! I saw lots and lots of queen cells at the bottom row of a couple of frames even in the third = most recent box. I did not squish them as I do not think I can prevent a swarm at this point - they are too far along. And maybe too vibrant regardless of what I do. Or should I?
Now, my question for you: I have an empty nuc box. Maybe I transfer a couple of frames with lots of queen cells into that one and attempt a third hive? Or should I move some frames from the strong hive into the weak one, squishing all the queen cells and "thinning out" my weak hive with new frames every other? It is June in Zone7a here so temperaturewise I would think they are ok.
Any ideas are welcome!
I started with two packages this April and they did both well initially. After about 4 weeks I noted the egg and larva production in one hive -my weak hive from here on- to drop, and as I saw less and less capped brood and some backfilling I decided to get a new (marked) mated queen and put the queen cage in the hive 9 days ago. Today I looked for the first time: Candy plug gone, queen out - but the queen I find in the hive is not marked. Also I see still no eggs and no larva. My best guess is that I missed a virgin queen or an advanced queen cell somewhere, and that the virgin queen won the royal battle. Or - could the marking have been cleaned off and she is the mated queen I introduced but she has no room yet as they are just about to clean out all the backfilled combs?
My other hive -the strong hive from here on- has been amazing. Queen is a machine, so much so that I had to put a third medium box (I only use mediums) on top 2 weeks ago. Did not check last week as I wanted to give the new queen some peace (and no smoke). Anyway - today I looked and the third medium super which I added 2 weeks ago is completely full - all 8 frames! Lots of honey and pollen but in the middle also lots of capped and uncapped brood. This queen is a machine! Alas - I will lose her soon! I saw lots and lots of queen cells at the bottom row of a couple of frames even in the third = most recent box. I did not squish them as I do not think I can prevent a swarm at this point - they are too far along. And maybe too vibrant regardless of what I do. Or should I?
Now, my question for you: I have an empty nuc box. Maybe I transfer a couple of frames with lots of queen cells into that one and attempt a third hive? Or should I move some frames from the strong hive into the weak one, squishing all the queen cells and "thinning out" my weak hive with new frames every other? It is June in Zone7a here so temperaturewise I would think they are ok.
Any ideas are welcome!