2 queenless colonies, advise needed

[Louis123]

Hello all.

I’d like some advise on the best course of action to rescue 2 colonies.

To cut a long story short I have ended up with 2 old colonies (untouched for several years) in my apiary. I moved these a few days ago. I need to transfer both from poly hives to cedar (to return poly hives). Both are on 14x12 frames.

Colony 1 (inspected 2 days ago)
Capped brood, no larvae or eggs.
1 capped QC (potentially other capped QCs I missed)
Hatched QCs (could be old)
No supers
Plenty of stores

Colony 2 (inspected and transferred hives yesterday)
2 x supers
No excluder
Capped brood in bottom super and brood body.
No eggs or larvae.
1 capped QC that looked like it was hatching but could have been damaged when removing the frame. There was a small irregular hole in towards the bottom of the cell, looked eaten away rather than torn but I am guessing.
The hive was heavily propolised and other QCs could have been damaged when removing the frames.
This hive is full of sealed stores.
I have transferred into the new hive, introduced a clearer board under the top super, given a fresh super of undrawn foundation and fitted a QE on top of main brood body.

I now have 2 colonies that may or may not have virgin queens, potentially more hatching queens or a high possibility that the QCs have been damaged during transport or inspection.

The movement was beyond my control as is the need to rehive colony 1 as soon as possible.

I want to give the bees the TLC they deserve and limit any further damage to the colony. I’m very happy to purchase mated queens.

Torn over the best course of action to save the colonies.
Toying over the following:
1) Introduce a frame (eggs) from another colony and leave a week to see what the bees do.
2) Leave 3 weeks to see if any of the QCs will successfully hatch and mate
3) Destroy and QCs and attempt to introduce a mated queen

I’m sorry for the essay but have tried to give as much info in as few words as possible.

Any advise on the best course of action would be greatly appreciated. It would be great to keep the bloodline going, obviously productive and hardy.

Thanks a lot

Louis

 

[Poly Hive]

The first thing I would do is to offer these colonies a test frame. After that, as without knowing what the actual situation is you are in the land of the unsure. I would then ponder a course of action. If there are virgins in there which is probable then adding queens is a waste of money and time.

PH

 

[enrico]

I would be tempted to have a back up. You don't say if you have any other hives. If not then I would split one of them completely into two or three nucs, carefully inspecting for virgin queen's and queen cells. Meanwhile I would order some queen's in. Those nucs would then be requeened. That way you have known queen's to build up from and/or combine with the rest of the bees as things become apparent.
That is what I would do!
E

 

[eltalia]

Colony 1.
Remove 1 frame of mostly uncapped stores, archive that.
Add a fully drawn to position #3.
Inspect again in 9days.

Colony 2.
Remove that clearer board and QE.
Inspect again in 9days.

To be sure as a failsafe maybe contact a breeder to determine supply
is available if required in a fortnight's time.

Bill

 

[Louis123]

Thank you for your advise.

I’ve split the 2 colonies into 4 and requeened.

 

[eltalia]

Thank you for your advise.

I’ve split the 2 colonies into 4 and requeened.

... another option.
/thumbs up/

Bill