Botched uniting...offering £100 for mated queen.

[Mushy Bees]

Hello

I united two nucs on the 1st September using the spray method, and it all went horribly wrong! They fought terribly and I suspected the queen was murdered. I've just carried out the first proper inspection and my fears were confirmed. No brood and really aggressive bees.
Main lesson learned here - Don't cull a perfectly good queen without keeping her as a standby in a cage!
The bloody stupid thing is I paid good money for both the colonies!

Does anyone know where I can get a mated queen?
I'm in the Portsmouth/Southampton area.

Thanks.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Hello

I united two nucs on the 1st September using the spray method, and it all went horribly wrong! They fought terribly and I suspected the queen was murdered. I've just carried out the first proper inspection and my fears were confirmed. No brood and really aggressive bees.
Main lesson learned here - Don't cull a perfectly good queen without keeping her as a standby in a cage!
The bloody stupid thing is I paid good money for both the colonies!

Does anyone know where I can get a mated queen?
I'm in the Portsmouth/Southampton area.

Thanks.

try bickerstaffs

http://bickerstaffs.website.orange.co.uk/

 

[Midland Beek]

You can fit newspaper vertically inside a brood box for the purpose of uniting two nucs.

Try Kemble Bee Supplies.

 

[roche]

Hivemaker may be able to help you...

 

[Mushy Bees]

Thankyou for the links. I've tried them both and it's too late in the year.
They are doomed it seems and I'm kicking myself. Hard.

 

[theengraver]

hi read your private messages or call me on 01644440202
Mike

 

[freckledbeck]

Hi, check your pms, you can borrow one of my queens for free, but Id like her back in the spring!

 

[Mushy Bees]

PMs!!!

I've never checked my PM folder before and there were so many offers of help there.
You people are fantastic! Thankyou so much!!

I now have a queen on her way this weekend!
After speaking to Eyeman, he pointed out where I went wrong.
I culled the queen immediately before uniting. I should have given the colony time to realise they were queenless!!!

Talk about learning from your mistakes!!

Thankyou all again who PMd me. I'll reply to you all individually.

MB

 

[Grub]

Hi
I like a happy ending
Grub

 

[drstitson]

queen rental?

"you can borrow one of my queens for free, but Id like her back in the spring"

anyone able to lend me some workers (a couple of thousand will be fine) - you can have them back in the spring too!!!!

 

[Midland Beek]

I culled the queen immediately before uniting. I should have given the colony time to realise they were queenless!!!

No. You did not unite them using a reliable method of uniting. That was the problem.

And where is the logic in 'giving the colony time to realize they were queenless'? Give them time to 'feel' they were queenless is exactly the way to make bees less likely to accept a new queen.

Culling a queen and then destroying queen cells prior to uniting is more acceptable, but not as half as good as uniting as soon as the unwanted queen is killed.

Dunno what books some beeks are reading.

 

[Mushy Bees]

I previously united two colonies (one being queenless) using this method and it worked beautifully.
I guess this is another case of asking three beeks the same question and getting three different correct answers.

It makes the hobby richer in my mind.

 

[oliver90owner]

I previously united two colonies (one being queenless) using this method and it worked beautifully.

This was about the end of June when you said:

Quote:There are about a hundred dead bees out there now and I'm just hoping the carnage is over and not on-going.

Maybe I'll try the newspaper method next time!End of quote taken from your thread "have I screwed up?"

Sorry, but you really need to take some of the advice offered earlier.

RAB

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Last Autumn I united two small colonies by removing one queen and dusting both colonies with icing sugar. it worked fine. I shook the bees off the brood frame of the smallest colony and put it next to the other two. Then put the remaining frames by their side. With the best queen and the brood together to form a reasonable sized brood nest, they did OK and got through the winter.

The intiial plan was to unite two nucs by the newspaper method but in Nat brood boxes. After a day they had not chewed through the newspaper and as they were in big boxes for their size and as the weather was due to be cold and wet, I popped them together with icing sugar.

 

[Mushy Bees]

Well spotted there RAB.

Comparing the only two occasions I have ever united colonies, it seems the first time did indeed go beautifully with only a hundred or so dead bees. It is now a flourishing colony. This second time around there was a small mountain of carcasses!

I'm still in my first year beekeeping, and after reading reading posts mentioning piles of dead bees using the paper method, I figured maybe the method I used wasn't so bad after all. That united colony is now my strongest.

Going forward, I WILL try the paper method the next time I unite two Queenright colonies.