Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: rober on August 01, 2013, 10:12:31 pm
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i have a hive that went queenless. i introduced a caged queen & put tape over the candy plug for 5 days. 5 days after the tape came off they were only 1/2 way thru the candy & the bees seemed to be ignoring the new queen so i removed the remaining candy & put the cage back into the hive. a week has passed & now there is no sign of the queen & there is no brood. this late in the season would it be worth trying another queen or should i just combine them with another hive. the population is down & i'd probably have to give them some frames of brood to help the population numbers & to prevent laying workers
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A frame of open brood will postpone laying workers. One a week for three weeks will resolve almost any queen issue.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm (http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm)
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thanks for that michael. the flow is over here. do most queens slow down there laying now? the brood levels seem low in my other hives.
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Need more info. How big is the hive? How much food stores do they have?
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"" A frame of open brood will postpone laying workers. One a week for three weeks will resolve almost any queen issue.""
That's true. On the other hand, 3 frames of brood and a bit of feed and you can start a nuc. Who needs the queenless hive?
This late in the year, I would shake them out in the bee yard and let them find new homes.
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That's true. On the other hand, 3 frames of brood and a bit of feed and you can start a nuc. Who needs the queenless hive?
This late in the year, I would shake them out in the bee yard and let them find new homes.
Good point there id
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I'll second that Iddee. :-D
Jim
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> do most queens slow down there laying now?
Some races of bees (Carniolans, Russians, Caucasians, feral survivors) tend to shut down brood rearing in a dearth. Italians tend to raise brood anyway.
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this hive was supposedly some sort of carniolan/hygenic mix. i got 3 nucs of these bees in mid may & i'm not impressed with any of them performance-wise. none have built up much so far. my self queened captured swarms are doing much better than these nucs. the hive in question is low on stores & the population is way down. shaking them out & putting a fresh nuc in the same location sounds like a better plan.
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i came up with another possible option today. I'm doing a hogan bee removal from a brick house. checked it today & the box was loaded with bees & brood. so either the bees made a supercedure queen from a frame of brood that i gave them or the brood drew out the hive's queen. today i pulled out 5 frames of bees with some brood. i left a frame of brood in the box & added 5 frames of drawn comb. i put the trapped bees in a nuc & put the nuc on top of the failing hive. I'll check it in a couple of days To see whether i have the queen. if i do I'll put the nuc in deep hive body & do a newspaper combine on the weak hive. sound feasible?
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Five frames with a "maybe" queen and 15 frames of empty comb? Sounds like a great SHB and wax moth incubator. I would just start a nuc with the five frames and shake out the old bees in front of it.
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well it's no longer a maybe. there is a queen. i installed the cardboard portable nuc of bees from the trap into a nuc & put it on top of the failing hive. it has a full frame of brood from the trap. i rubber banded some natural comb with brood & honey into an empty frame & installed that with 3 frames of drawn comb. while doing all this i looked at my left sleeve & there was the queen!! i grabbed her & put her in the nuc. in a few days depending on the weather i'll grab more bees from the trap & put a 2nd story on the nuc. at the time i'll shake out the failing hive.
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well the bees decided for me. i'd put the nuc with the trapped bees & queen on top of the queenless hive. personal circumstances delayed the plans that i'd made to shake out the queenless hive. went thru the hives here at home this morning & found the nuc abandoned & several frames of brood in the now not queenless hive. it seems the trapped bees & queen moved into the hive.
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this hive was supposedly some sort of carniolan/hygenic mix. i got 3 nucs of these bees in mid may & i'm not impressed with any of them performance-wise. none have built up much so far. my self queened captured swarms are doing much better than these nucs. the hive in question is low on stores & the population is way down. shaking them out & putting a fresh nuc in the same location sounds like a better plan.
> do most queens slow down there laying now?
Some races of bees (Carniolans, Russians, Caucasians, feral survivors) tend to shut down brood rearing in a dearth. Italians tend to raise brood anyway.
My finding is that Russian, Carniolan, Caucasian, Feral, and Minnesota Hygienic have a tendency to use periodic brood dearths as a way of conserving food resources as well as control Varroa mites. If you have an non-Italian hive it may not be queenless but just having a queen on hiatus.
Hives usually start shutting down brood rearing by mid-July tapering off and backfilling the brood chamber for winter stores.