Advice re uniting

[drex]

On 25/7 I did an AS. In my inexperience I had destroyed a supercedure cell and the little devils went on to produce swarm cells, so I did the AS

My problem now is the parent hive appears queenless. By my estimate the new queen hatched about 17 days ago - I saw the hatched cell at the next (limited) inspection - limited as I did not want to intrude on the new virgin. I have been patient. Today the hive is totally broodless, and I saw no eggs or fresh larvae, or a queen. The bees however are still quite placid.

Weather has been OK ( off and on) for mating flights, however I have few drones in my hives.

I have decided that I must unite the nuc containing the old queen ( she has continued to lay) and the parent hive ( which is dwindling fast).

Since they were all one, at one time, with presumably the same smells, do I still have to do a newspaper unite? I am away next week and want to get Apiguard in ASAP.

Thanks.

Des

 

[justme]

Not sure whether necessary, would've thought yes though. I would anyway.

 

[drstitson]

it is still theoretically possible that the queen is just/alreadystarting to lay - can you reliably say you have seen no eggs.
14-17 days isn't outwith realms of possibility given awful weather in last few weeks.

should be able to unite ok i'd have thought - do another check in a day or two and if still no larvae just go for it.

 

[drex]

- can you reliably say you have seen no eggs.
.

Not 100% no, as still not confident about seeing them, but I had a darn good look

 

[MJBee]

Drex,
Any sign of polished empty cells? 17 days is not long enough if the weather has been a bit iffy. Polished cells = bees expecting their new queen to begin laying any time.

As has been said elsewhere unless you are absolutely sure a colony is Q- uniting will result in the queens fighting and you may well end up with no queen at all.

A "test frame" of eggs and larvae will tell you whether there is a queen or not - I suspect you have as the bees are calm, they get very agitated when Q-