[louborges]

I ordered two queens for my nucs that rejected the ones I introduced a few weeks ago. I went through the hive and could not find her and there were no queen cells. So I ordered two more. Now I find a virgin queen in one of them How they made one without me seeing queen cells I don't know. So the question is what to do with the extra one? Is there a way I could keep both Queens in one nuc till I figuire out what to do witht the extra one?

 

[Andrew Dewey]

See if someone in your local bee club would like her. Maybe you could recoup her cost.

 

[Beeslave]

I personally would kill the virgin and introduce your new queen if she came from a good breeder/stock.

It's also possible that it nots a virgin you seen and it is your queen that you tried to introduce and she was bad to begin with. Of course if the first "rejected" queen was marked then you know that it's not her.

At the same time you also risk having a queen that is worse then the virgin would have been.

 

[waynesgarden]

The question was about bees in a nuc, not about splitting a hive.

I agree with beeslave's advice and if you have something nasty to say about me, even with a cute little LOL, fire away.

Wayne

 

[Beeslave]

A good mated queen is worth much more than a measley virgin and priceless compared to a queen that has already failed! Beekeeping decisions should be made with whats in the best interest of your wallet and the bees, not "tree hugging" philosophy.

Your welcome to come and try to keep up with me in the bee yard and you can see why I picked the handle I did.

Mr. Beeslave

 

[G3farms]

That was my first thoughts also, pinch the emergency queen and install the mated queen. At least you will know what you have in the hive.

 

[Specialkayme]

A good mated queen is worth much more than a measley virgin and priceless compared to a queen that has already failed! Beekeeping decisions should be made with whats in the best interest of your wallet and the bees, not "tree hugging" philosophy.

Very good advice right here . . . aside from the "tree hugging" sling (sorry Beeslave, not an attack at you).

If you do something wrong, thousands of workers will die. By not choosing a good queen, you are essentially pinching each and every worker. By pinching the queen that could endanger the hive, you are just killing one instead of thousands. Believe it or not, it's the more humane thing to do. For the good of the hive, that's how the bees think, and that's how I view it.

The hobbiest tends to look at the decision that is best for the bees, not considering cost. The commercialist often gets the rap of looking at the decision that is best for the wallet, not considering the bees (although this isn't necessarily true). Striking the right balance between the two is what makes a decent beekeeper a great beekeeper.

 

[Aspera]

Maybe it would be informative to consider the etymology of hobbiest and commercialist. The goals of these two groups are sometimes at odds and beesource is interesting because it incorperates both groups.

 

[brac]

Let the new queen see you squish the old queen, so she knows her place!

 

[winevines]

That was my first thoughts also, pinch the emergency queen and install the mated queen. At least you will know what you have in the hive.

Been there, done that.
It does not always work.
Last year my mentee ended up with a queenless hive and a wasted designer queen that I thought was better to put in there than the one the bees raised themselves.
The bees were like... why did you take all those virgins out of the hive and all those queen cells?

 

[Maine_Beekeeper]

IMHO, it is all about apiary size. If you have the numbers, you can move as you need to. In my apiary (70-100 plus mating nucs) if I see a virgin when I am coming in with a mated queen, I back off and wait. I have a place for the queen (where she came from) or can make one up with no problem (a mating nuc or queen castle). Give the requeening hive a chance to do it on their own and if they don't you add the full "mating nuc" with brood and all so they essentially haven't lost any (much) time. I believe that queens raised by bees when they want to are better equipped than queens raised due to beekeeper manipulations. That isn't to say that I don't rear queens because I do - I have to in order to produce the queens I need. But you will never hear me trashing a swarming hive raised queen. Best, -E.