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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Starks, Walter" <Walter.Starks AT facilities.unc.edu>, Orange County Beekeepers <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Is this good or bad
  • Date: Sun, 04 May 2014 16:22:40 -0400

Sorry, the empty hive idea won't work. The colony needs young nurse bees to grow/expand, not just old foragers.

One option is to very carefully go through and find the hive's queen. You can take a queen excluder, put it over an empty super, and put an empty super over that. Shake & brush every frame into the top super. Smoke the bees a bit and the workers will go down into the empty super. If all goes well, that will leave the queen and drones stuck on the top of the excluder, easy to see.

Another option is to sell that new queen to somebody on the listserv and focus on the new nucs.

Other folks may have other suggestions.

Randall

On 5/4/2014 3:40 PM, Starks, Walter wrote:
5F8BF29A-96C4-4562-95DE-B0CC8E96CA86 AT fac.unc.edu" type="cite"> When I blow they cling tightly to the cage. I had to use a brush (vigorously) to even see if the queen was still alive. I don’t have any other hives yet (2 nucs on order from Bailey), so no brood frames other than the couple of frames in the hive here with a few open cells.

What if I put her in an empty hive (foundation only)? If I move this hive and put another in the same spot? A few foragers might return and stay, maybe?????
________


Walter



On May 4, 2014, at 3:22 PM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Walter,

Great pic; it speaks a thousand words.

If you blow on them or brush them lightly, do they cling tightly to the cage? Based solely on the picture, and judging by the number and apparent attitude of the bees, it looks to me like the workers are trying to kill the caged queen. If that's the case, either they have another queen, perhaps a virgin that isn't laying yet, or they have been lured by laying workers into thinking they are queenright. Either way the new queen will be toast once they reach her.

Do you have another hive that can spare some broodframes? For now, I would try to salvage the fancy queen by putting her in a small split with a couple of frames of emerging brood. When she's laying well it will be easier to beef up that split with more broodframes to make a full hive, combine it with another hive or let it grow on its own into a full hive.

Randall Austin


On 5/4/2014 2:59 PM, Starks, Walter wrote:
E703B60F-1399-45E1-838B-DEC68C3830C3 AT fac.unc.edu" type="cite">
This queen has been in the hive since Tuesday. The hive shows very little activity. It has 3 frames with a little comb. a few cells with pollen and nectar but not much. And just a handful of cells with open brood. I think possibly one of the workers has started laying. I added this queen last Tuesday but didn’t pull the cork on the candy because I wanted to allow an extra long time for her to get accepted. We checked today and this is what we are seeing. I can’t tell if they are trying to free the queen from the cage or kill her. There were an even larger number of bees balled up on the cage when we first opened the hive.


<Mail Attachment.jpeg>

photo
 
I went ahead and pulled the cork from the candy end today. figure it’ll take at least a couple of days for the bees to eat thru. Any advice?????


________


Walter





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