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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • To: "ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org" <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Dear Abbee, my whoas are many!
  • Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2014 10:52:05 -0400 (EDT)

Oh my!  This is a sticky wicket indeed and perhaps beyond the scope of a listserve.  I will take a crack at some of the questions and perhaps others will fill in from there.  I would recommend contacting your Bee Inspector and see if he can come out and help discern what is going on.
 
For the strong colony...If you have capped queen cells AND eggs there is a strong possibility that the hive has simply decided to "change management".  Sometimes the bees will dispatch the old queen before the new queen is laying, which can leave you with a period where you do not have eggs.  Other times the bees will not dispatch the old queen until the new queen is up and running, so you will have mother and daughter working side by side for a period. In this scenario you will also observe newly emerged queen cells as well as healthy eggs (You have new queens running around that are not mated and will not be laying and you also have the old queen still working). The queen cells that you observed...Were they on the bottom of the frame or in the middle of the frame?  Cells in the middle tend to be supersedure cells while cells on the bottom of the frame tend to be swarm cells.  This seems an odd time of the year for swarming, but anything is possible.
 
As far as holding a queen in a cage...I have kept a queen in a cage with attendants in my kitchen cupboard (cool dark place) for about a week.  Place a drop of water on the cage once or twice a day.  Your milage may vary.  Sooner is better.
 
Shook swarm how to.  Perhaps of some use.  The shook swarm method seems to be popular in the UK.  In the States we seem to be more keen on doing splits.
 
I think you need an inspector that can help diagnose the weak colony and help sort out what is happening in the strong colony.
 
Lewis
 

On September 4, 2014 at 10:32 PM Brian and Lanette Fee <fee436 AT att.net> wrote:

Dear Abbee,

     I got two nucs in the spring.  One has been a strong hive that has done quite well.  The other one has done so-so, but it was always a weaker hive.  Recently the weaker hive took a precipitous fall.  About a week ago and a half ago, I no longer saw eggs in the weaker hive.  The bees had started to make their own queen.  I think these queen cells were made using older larvae and in a hurry.  The queen cells were small.  I cut these out and gave them a frame from the stronger hive that had a mix of eggs and larvae.  I made sure I had eggs on the frame so they had a good start if they needed to make their own queen.  I also started hunting to buy a queen to save time.  This took a while, but a got one ordered late last week.  Last Saturday, I hear a noise 40 feet up in a tree and, bummer, a swarm, but I didn’t know from which hive, but I didn’t have time to go into them right away.

    The ordered queen comes, and I go into the bees to find the strong hive is still brimming with bees, but has about 7 very nice looking queen cells, also eggs, and larvae of various sizes.  I don’t believe this queen can fly.  From day one she has had damaged wings.  In a case like that, what happens to the old queen since she is the one that normally leaves?  I cut out the swarm cells.  The weak hive is now a dying hive.  I think this one is either the one that swarmed or it’s dying a very fast death.  Since there are so many swarm cells in the strong hive, I’m thinking that by accident, I moved a queen cell to the weak hive – that or they just saw the writing on the wall and left.  There are still a fair number of bees in the weak hive. 

     Taking stock of what I have:  I have one hive that is dying with still a good number of bees in it.  Does it have a queen?  I’m not sure.  I have a new purchased queen.  And, I have a hive that desperately wants to swarm.  What do I do?

     My inclination is to move the old queen to a nuc and fake a swarm, then install the newly purchased queen in the old hive, then dismantle the dying hive.  Is that a good idea?  What’s the best way to fake a swarm?  How much brood etc., should I move with the old, strong queen?  What do I do with the bees in the old, weak hive?  How long will my purchased queen live without a hive?  She has attendants with her.  If I use her to fake the swarm of the old, strong hive, how long should I wait before I put the purchased queen in with that hive after I’ve moved the old queen out?

 

So many problems, so little time.  Anyone out there have any pearls of wisdom?

Lanette


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