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To avoid this happening in future, as soon as you have charged cells and any difficulty finding the queen, just a) move the whole hive to another stand b) put a nuc (or other box) on the original site, with one frame of open brood including eggs and small larvae and NO QUEEN CELLS, and their...

Just a standard transfer of bees from a nuc to a hive. No issues.

Equipment with bees in

Where did you move them to?

You ordered a new queen, and THEN came for advice on here? ;) I think you need to take all restrictions out of this hive (clearer board, queen excluder, whatever), give the poor confused bees a chance to sort themselves out without these man-made obstructions, wait two weeks to give any new...

It sounds like that's already been done, or at least the colony has been moved back out of the protected area, hence the question re the equipment being returned once there will definitely be no mites in it.

Beekeeping, eh? Don't make holes in the paper? There was a thread the other day about bees that never made it through, and the entire box starved. Do make holes in the paper? They got through too quick and fought! Use air freshener? There'll be plenty of times this results in slaughter, and...

What you can put it down to is that it's swarming season. They have plenty of food, and brood, and have decided to swarm. It's what bees do - there would be no bees if they didn't. They will almost certainly try again, and when they do, you need a plan to deal with them (i.e. an artificial swarm...

As a former member I can confirm that they are fairly useless at dealing with that type of generous offer. Apologies on their behalf. I am sure you will find someone

That is a bridge that can be crossed at the time I think. But yes, in principle. So start brushing up on what method you would use to do that if it happens.

Whaddya mean "a split in case of queen cells"? Are there queen cells? Or do you mean do a split so they don't make queen cells? Anyway, the new queen has only just got going. You need to let them build up their strength again. Revisit this in a month.

When you say "dead queen cells", what do you mean? Queen cells can't die - they are just wax :) They are thinking about swarming perhaps - who knows. Keep an eye on them and inspect regularly. If there is an egg in a queen cell, inspect again in maybe 5 days. But stop feeding now. They have...

Welcome To clarify, when you say "there are a number of queen cells evident. One cell is open with egg laid" do you mean a) there are some capped queen cells or b) there are only open queen cells, and one has an egg in Did you actually see the queen on the inspection? Did you see eggs and...

Certainly I would always recommend having two rather than one, as insurance. There are a dozen ways to achieve that, but that's for another thread!

If the brood box is full of brood, and you want to reduce the chance of them swarming, give them more brood space, via one of the methods you have mentioned This thread is also running Adding a 2nd brood box | Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum (beekeepingforum.co.uk)

Are they actually producing drones in this drone comb? If so, it's not a definitive sign of swarming intent, but it does indicate a colony that feels it has plenty of resources to spare, so yes, keep an eye on them and add space (space for brood that is) as required.

Yes. Sometimes swarms don't build drone comb in their first year, as their priority is to build up for winter, but big swarms can decide to build drone comb, certainly. Why not - drone comb is one of their ways of reproducing after all, and bees are programmed to do that. Probably. Some say...

Just leave it a week without any bees in the hive, and there won't be any living varroa. Freezing is, of course, another way of being sure, though this would require a large chest freezer if you are talking about boxes.

A google search suggests 3-5 days. Honey is no use to them, just to be clear.

Only my first year using fishing line, but I haven't found this yet - interesting. Maybe some bees just take a dislike to the stuff.