Saving a hive after queen has been removed

[chris8126]

I recently found a bee hive in a wall of a barn and had a guy come and remove it.  He took the queen and part of the hive and bees but there still is a basketball sized group left.  He said the remaining bees would either die or join other hives.  I was wondering if these bees would survive, will a queen appear.  I was reading that some bees feeding normal bees royal jelly will do this. Can I get a queen to replace them if I had a bee hive to put them in.  Sorry for so many questions.

[Cindi]

Chris1826. Wait, you will get responses.....beautiful and most wonderful day, Cindi

[Robo]

Hi Chris,

First of all if there is a basketball size cluster of bees remaining, whoever did the removal did a lousy job.  Is it possible that a new swarm moved into the same spot?   

If it is not a new swarm and they are just left behind bees,  then they will most likely just perish or move to another colony assuming all the comb was removed.   If some comb was left behind and there was young brood in it, they could raise a new queen a survive.

You first need to determine if there is comb or if they are building comb. 

If there is no comb,  they bees can be salvaged by placing them in a hive with a purchased queen.   If there is comb, you could cut the comb and put it in a hive and determine if there is a queen laying or not.  If there is eggs being laid then a queen is present and your hive is set.  If there is no eggs, there is either no queen and a purchased one can be supplied,  or there is a virgin queen that has not started to lay yet (this would be the case if they where able to raise a new one from brood left behind).

Please update your profile with your location,  perhaps there is a member close to you that could help you out.


rob...

[Michael Bush]

It does sound like a swarm moved in with them...  that's a lot of bees.  If they have an egg from which to raise a queen they may get one yet.  If they don't, then it is hopeless for them without a queen.  They will either drift to some other hive or they will turn into laying workers and eventually die off.

[chris8126]

I recently got a picture of the bees. I was going to post it but I guess I cant, they are in a basketball sized bunch I guess on comb I don't know.  I wouldn't think that a swarm moved in he just took them monday and I looked on tuesday morning and this is what I saw.  I have no equipment to go in and look for a queen or at the bees.  I don't really want to kill them thats why I wanted him to take them.  If there is no queen I guess they are dead anyway, right?

[Robo]

email a link to the picture to photos@beemaster.com and an administrator with append it to the post for you.

If there is no queen  AND no brood for them to raise a queen from, then yes they will die or migrate to another colony.

[Robo]

You may want to check the member map
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,1339.0.html

Or the swarm remover map
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/board,77.0.html

There might be a forum member near you that could help you out.