Mailing list for the Person County Beekeepers Association, Roxboro, NC

[Randall Austin <s.randall.austin AT gmail.com>]

Hey Bob,

Armchair diagnoses are never worth much but here are some opinions.

The aggression at the hive entrance isn't related to queen status. It sounds like there is some robbing going on.

To deter swarming, it would have been much more effective to remove the old queen and put her in a new spot rather than leaving her in the old spot. That colony may very well still swarm.

If you really want to know what is going on then you need to go into the hives. Be careful when you remove frames because it is easy to shear off queen cells. Separate the frames, with plenty of space between them, before removing them. One hive should have capped and/or almost-capped queen cells and some older brood. The other should have eggs and very young larvae as well as older brood. If you started with eggs/larvae in both hives then you'll see this in Hive A and Hive B, respectively, or Hive B and Hive A. It doesn't really matter which is which as long as both either have a queen or are making one.

If you wait another full week to look at the hives then you'll be in "the twilight zone" between having an emerged virgin and having evidence she is there. There won't be eggs, larvae or pupae in this period but everything will probably be fine. This waiting period will last about 2 weeks. If you try to introduce a queen into the colony during this time she will be killed, because the bees already have a queen in development. The article <here> discusses this very common situation. It should be a must-read by anyone who thinks their colony has become queenless during the spring.

It will be about one month to five weeks following the split for there to be obvious evidence of a new queen (eggs/larvae). If nothing else, beekeeping teaches patience.

Randall Austin

On 4/9/2016 5:04 AM, Robert Brauer wrote:

CAMS4J_9vkQPqVgODUKZYZZ5zJ90jCbRJJW4vrgJ8_qy-49gr3Q AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite">

About a week ago I examined one of my hives and became concerned about swarming.  The hive had very healthy brood patterns and I found numerous queen cells.  I removed three frames of honey and brood (including 2x queen cells) and placed them in nuc box along with two empty frames of foundation. Empty frames of foundation were also placed back in the main hive brood box.  My intention was to leave the queen in the original brood box in hopes that the nuc would make a new queen either from a fresh egg or from one of the transferred queen cells. I did not find the queen but tried to ensure she was not on the transferred frames.  I put a top feeder on the nuc.  

Yesterday I observed the hives from the outside.  The nuc seems to doing fine with what I would characterize as normal foraging activity.  The original main hive seems to be quite unhappy/agitated - I've observed numerous instance of bees ganging up on individuals and dragging them out the front entrance.  I'm not feeding this hive and I don't have an entrance reducer installed.

I'm beginning to suspect that I inadvertently moved the queen to the nuc and the original hive is now queenless - which may explain the odd/aggressive behavior. Agree?

 

I'm inclined to leave them alone for now - the original hive should also have the resources to make a queen.  If a queen is not produced (how long should I wait?) I'm not opposed to purchasing a queen as this has been a strong hive for me and I want to get it back on track.

Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

      Bob 

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