Thanks Onriver. That's what I have in mind once of completed my various queen introductions elsewhere - better safe than sorry.
No queen on today's inspection still - though 2 sealed queencells.
I assume they d
o they do this even though they can't possibly make a queen?
Thanks Onriver. That's what I have in mind once of completed my various queen introductions elsewhere - better safe than sorry.
No queen on today's inspection still - though 2 sealed queencells.
I assume they d
o they do this even though they can't possibly make a queen?
I'm not planning to use this nuc for queen introduction. 2 killed queens, even if one was redundant, is two too many.
Only just seen these 2 latest posts. If I can't find a queen in 5 visits on only 5 frames, or a queen-cell she was born from, then perhaps I should take up a different hobby...
I suspect they nibbled through the paper and candy in a very few hours, Adrian. I taped mine securely with electricians tape, and they had to wait for a couple of days till I let them out. So far so good with this trick.
As in previous thread, Nuc made on 28th July, expecting queens on 29th. They were delayed for a week, and advice was that it wouldn't matter. It did.
So questions remain.
1. How long before workers go drone-laying when hopelessly queenless.
2. I can identify drone-laying worker activity...
Latest update. One of the nucs went drone-laying - see separate thread.
The other unite successful. I united by putting new queenright Buckfast nuc beneath old hive, removed queen from old hive and paper-united immediately. All well, and still well.
LATEST UPDATE 20 August, One of the nucs went queen-laying. They killed a Buckfast a few days after after I had made them - though I did give them access immediately on insertion (via candy entrance). I searched for a queen for some time after, and gave them a redundant laying queen, whom...
Thanks Cazza and Olive. Diverse opinions, but maybe for different circumstances. Uniting after an artificial swarm I'd do it straight away. My worry is uniting nucs with expensive Buckfasts to different strong stock, and I suppose there it's safer (as I have at times in the past) to remove...
I have a new laying queen in a nuc taken from the main hive, and will remove the old queen and unite. What's the best time frame for removing the old queen before the unite. Some books say straight away, some to leave queenless for one or two days. I've had success and failure with all three...
As it happens, my new queens are going to be another week, so I've borrowed a couple of virgin queens in cages and put them in caged to keep the nucs happy and hopeful.