Well I never Liked that Hive Anyways

[Beeboy01]

Just finished an inspection of the yard getting ready for the queens coming in Friday. Hive #1 which was a survivor hive has pretty much crashed with lots of drones, few workers and about 5 or 6 hatched queen cells. Looks like the hive kept throwing small swarms until it ran out of resources. I never did like that hive, it was always grumpy, never stored any honey and has always thrown a lot of small swarms.  Not sure why I've kept it around and have a queen on order for it. Good chance there is a laying worker present so did a shake out today in preparation for the queen coming in Friday. Also added a frame of brood to calm the hive down till a queen gets here.
   Not too upset about the crash and have been wanting to get the genes out of my yard for the past couple years. Hope the new queen is accepted without a lot of problems.
  The rest of the yard is doing fine, I keep forgetting the season is still early without any major flow going on in my area.

[van from Arkansas]

BEEBOY, Again, thanks for your post lasts February.  I was setting in constant cold weather so your bee activity post were so encouraging to me as my bees were clustered and I was so anxious.

Sounds like you know exactly what you are doing.  Me too, I also have hives that or on queen replacement list, due to:  aggressive behavior, or poor comb builders, or poor laying pattern.

I have a hive that insist on burr comb or comb built 90degrees to the frame.  The queen is a sorta a good layer, gentle bees but all the burr comb is a pain.  If I present a new plastic wax cell frame the bees build comb cross ways.  So, BEEBOY, like you said, I really don?t like the hive.  The hive is to be requeened later this month.

There are always culls in my apiary.  The new queens I place this year will not be evaluated until next spring and so on.

[Beeboy01]

Van, I'm just fumbling around with my hives. I think I've got it all together then the flow stops or swarming starts. Been trying to get three nucs started and have them make their own queens, been a lesson in frustration so far. I spotted queen cells but then no fresh brood or queen sign. It's still early in the season, need to slow down and let the bees do their thing.
Thanks for the kind words about my post last February, I've been stuck in the cold wondering if the girls would make it and thought a little inspiration would help carry you through. ;) 

[van from Arkansas]

Yes Sir BeeBoy, you carried me through.  Remember me next February, please.

You mentioned frustration with queen cells.  Most of us at one time or another know the frustration.  I just looked at a hive with only 3 swarm cells.  Why just 3, I have seen as many as 18.  I have seen hives that refuse to build queen cells by emergency method that I offered frames of eggs with larva 3 different times compared to hives that make many queen cells just from a single frame.  Go figure??!!

Now I am not saying make queen cells by emergency impulse method.  I have seen queens made from larva that was to old by emergency method.  Just not the preferred method as BlackForest pointed out recently on another topic here.  I would prefer grafted or natural swarm cells.  I have some beautiful 3 year old queens that were created by my wet grafting.

So keep at it BEEBOY, that is the pleasure of bees, they always keep us thinking.

[Beeboy01]

I'm picking up two queens tomorrow for the questionable hives. Did a split out and tear down  on both of them yesterday and will introduce the new queens in the afternoon. Still have three hives going strong which I'm hoping will give a decent honey crop this year. Anything over 12 gallons is a good year for me and should be an easy goal for the area. Still early according to my bee journal and starting to think I jumped the gun a little. Hive #1 was going to swarm no matter what this year, I'm almost glad it's crashed and I'm hoping I'll finally get the Africanized genes out of the yard.

[van from Arkansas]

I have a very high acceptance for introduced queens since I started using the queen release frame cage.  The frame cage is standard length, standard width but only 3 inches in dept with number 8 wire on the sides. This way the queen can spread her pheromones the entire length of the hive, both sides of the frame I might add.

Been using these frame cages for years and for me, they are the greatest.  However if you have high acceptance rate, then keep doing what you are doing.
Blessings

[BeeMaster2]

Beeboy,
The next time you are going to replace queens, I would recommend that you have the queens in hand before you prep the hive. Many a beekeeper has found out the hard way that sometimes Murphy will get you. You go to get the queens and there are none to bee had. If your buddy is constantly making lots of queens, maybe you could ignore this advice but usually it is one to go by.
Jim Altmiller

[Beeboy01]

I picked up the queens this morning from a local supplier after ordering them about ten days ago. They called and said that they were ready for pickup. The two hives were prepped Thursday by breaking them down and moving about half the resources to a different location in the yard.  These were the hives that got the new queens, it's an old school split with queen introduction after 48 hours which has worked well for me. Queens are getting expensive and I stick with what has worked before. There was no hostility shown to the queens when introduced so I'm pretty sure they will be accepted. Will check in about three days to see if the queens have been released and take it from there. 
Thanks for all the help, I don't re-queen very often. 

[ed/La.]

Are they new queen or last year queen that vendor is culling? No way of knowing if you're buying from a stranger. I recommend making your own as soon as possible. It's fun.

[Beeboy01]

Buying queens has always been a little risky with the possibility of getting older queens. I've been burned a few times with older queens that swarm or fail after only a few months.  I'm more interested in getting the grumpy genes out of my bee yard and am planning to start a few replacement nucs from the new queens as a plan "bee".

[Beeboy01]

I picked up the queens and introduced them Friday afternoon after the splits were queenless for about 48 hours. The hives were calm and showed no aggression to them.  I checked them today and both queens had been released so I'm going out on a limb and saying the queen introductions has been a success. Will check in about two weeks (going out of town next week) for fresh brood and eggs. Also will need to check the donor hives for queens when I get back.