New Queen

[RobboWA]

(Posted this in the main forum as well)

Hi Beekeepers,

I apologies for the short notice and lack of knowledge. My neighbor has given me a queen bee as they weren't in a position to use her. My hive is young and does not need the queen replaced yet. I have raided my hive about 4-6 weeks ago (1 super). My thoughts were to make a new nuc with 2 brood and one honey from my current hive so I don't waste the queen and get a chance to build up. I live in South West WA and my concerns are that we are late in the season. My current hive is very strong and I plan to feed them during the Winter as well. Thoughts on whether I should progress?

[BeeMaster2]

If your winter is rather moderate, you could as long as you feed the hive or just give them another frame of bees and honey.
I once took a queen out of a failing hive in October with less than one frame of bees left on it. I put them in my observation hive on my patio and their numbers dwindled down. The coldest the patio got was around 45-50 degrees F. In December at the solar equinox, they had about a silver dollar size ball of bees showing on the outside of one of the 2 frames in the OH. She then started to lay and by March she had the 2 frames covered with bees and they swarmed.
It is possible. Make sure they have no more drawn comb than they can handle.
Jim

[RobboWA]

Cheers Jim,

Thanks for the advice!

Clint

[BeeMaster2]

Cheers Jim,

Thanks for the advice!

Clint

Any time. 
Jim

[M3RLIN]

You could put a queen excluder between the two supers and double your numbers. Just got to make sure the queens can't sting at each other through the excluder.