u can take a frame of eggs and larva and give them to the queenlees colony so they can make another queen cell, or you could combine them using the newspaper method
What to do about queenless hive?
One of my hives went queenless, and they had a few queen cells. So I decided to make a 5 frame nuc split with a queen cell and left another in the main hive to hatch out into a new queen. The queen in the nuc hatched out and is already laying. I checked the main hive, and wasn't able to locate the queen, but the queen cell was opened when I checked last week. I went in today and didn't find the queen or any eggs. They have no brood and have now been queenless about a month. I think she may have hatched out and something happened to her during the mating flight. We had lots of heavy rain and bad weather. I'm worried about having a worker starting to lay. So I need help deciding what to do about getting a queen and having her accepted. I have to wait till Tuesday to call the local bee supply place to see if they have any queens (Hudson valley bee supply) Or should I take a frame of eggs from another hive and give it to them to raise another queen. Or I have a queen cage from when I got my packages this year and pretty sure I have some candy and take the queen from the nuc and give it to the queenless hive, so she will be mated and ready to lay when she gets released and then let the nuc raise another queen?
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OR you could give them a frame or two of brood too with newly hatched larva, or eggs. This will help prevent a laying worker situation while at the same let you know if there is a virgin queen, or a mated queen that simply has not begun to lay yet present. if they begin to build queen cells then you most likely do not have a queen, the brood as I said will stave off the laying worker, and give you time to order a queen. If the hive has ample forces this would be my course of action. if not then a combine may be the best bet. but remember you can always combine later on.
Thanks for the info, I'll give them a couple frames of brood. I was going to do that today, but wasn't sure if I'd have enough time for them to make a new queen. They have plenty of bees, the hive has 2 brood boxes on it and tons of bees.
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