Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: WWWard on August 14, 2012, 12:53:50 am
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Tried a split this year and there was something I missed (the queen). There were 3 queen cells and 2 had been stung out, but when I found no evidence of the queen laying in what I thought was a more then reasonable timeline, I used a nuc and joined it to the split hive. Unfortunately, she must have been there as the nuc's queen disappeared. 'Hindsight' I thought that I was looking at a queen-less hive at this point. I did not see eggs and added a frame of brood and eggs hoping for a queen cell. No cells as I went on vacation. 2 weeks later I find a capped queen cell and stumble across a very injured queen.
What to do? I have a weak hive, a weak queen(damaged wings) and queen cell that will hatch any day. I also have a queen less hive with worker queens. (Yes, I have tried a shakeout and added new eggs/brood) I am thinking of combining the queen-less with the weak queen hive.
I'm going to lose both hives if I do nothing and it is August (Tacoma Wa)so will a V-Queen get mated well?
Is it too late?
The queen-less hive has more resources then the split?
Ideas????????????
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first question...are there still any drones around? if not, you have a problem, but you still should be able to find a queen. answer the first question and research the queen purchase. then we can help you get things back together.
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WWWard.... Location: Hopelessly Lost
If you are in New England you are done
If you are in FL you maybe bee OK
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
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Jim, he is up here in the NW. Just getting to the dearth.
Listen to KathyP, I noted last week virtually no drones in my hives down south
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I still have a few drones around. The flow is done except for some of the local weeds and neighborhood gardens garlic, oregano, fall flowers,..etc. I have put in feeders and pulled all excess honey.
Should I combine with a strong hive? I will check here in a few minutes as to whether the queen cell has hatched.
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here's what i'd do using the info you gave. yes, i would combine, but with a laying worker hive you must have a good queen in the other hive and you must be careful with the combining. if you have a good queen in your strong hive, put window screen over it and set the weak hive on top. make A TOP OPENING for the top hive. leave them like that until you don't see evidence of workers laying in those boxes. then you can pull the screen and let them together.
if you do not have a queen in the stronger hive, get one or make sure the one that hatched is mated and laying. then you can combine.
with only one hive for the bees to join, i don't think i'd do a shake out. it's also to late to be putting brood into the weak hive to suppress the laying workers. do get on finding a queen in case you need one. find out how long they will be available if you are going to try to let them requeen.
best i can do...others might do differently?
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KathyP has a good plan. I did the same thing with a laying worker hive using a double queen screen. The laying workers never entirely quit, but the pheramones from the stronger hive (which had a strong queen) reduced the number of eggs they were laying to almost nothing. The two hives combined successfully.
I also agree with her comment about making sure the queen is laying (whether you buy one or let this one hatch) before combining. But I would go one further and say that your new queen should have open larvae present, too. I offer that only because I've had newly mated queens taken out by laying workers. Of course, if they've stopped at the point you pull the screen, you won't need to worry about that!
Good luck!
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I'm going to re-queen the weak hive and wait to see how it is doing (8-12 days). I was able to get a new queen locally mated today. I will combine this hive with the worker queen hive when I see eggs and larva. The box is already drilled with an upper entrance for the weaker colony and I have the window screen ready to go. I will hunt down the injured queen tonight and introduce the new queen tomorrow evening.
Thank you all for the advise.
Wayne
The adventure continues...