Can I give Queen cells on a frame to a queenless colony?

[charlievictorbravo]

I've done inspections today and found queen cells in the only colony that has not swarmed but one that has swarmed does not appear to now have a queen - no brood, no eggs (last eggs seen 22 May), virgin queen should be well mated by now (earliest mating should have been two weeks ago) and laying.

My thought is to give the queenless colony the frame with QCs on it (reduced to 2) and add a foundationed frame to the colony that's making swarm preparations in the hope that that will give them something to do in drawing it out and take their collective mind off swarming, plus they will have lost their queen cells.

Does that sound like a plan or not a good idea?

CVB

 

[Erichalfbee]

I would give the Q- colony a test frame and AS the one making swarm preps

 

[Eyeman]

[quoteI would give the Q- colony a test frame and AS the one making swarm preps][/quote]


Also make up a nuc with the frame with QC's leaving one with a healthy larvae (if uncapped).
The ?Q- colony is getting close to when laying workers can appear if truly Q- so a test frame will also reduce the risk.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I would give the Q- colony a test frame and AS the one making swarm preps

It's a bit late now for trying to stop them with one extra frame to draw

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I've done inspections today and found queen cells in the only colony that has not swarmed but one that has swarmed does not appear to now have a queen - no brood, no eggs (last eggs seen 22 May), virgin queen should be well mated by now (earliest mating should have been two weeks ago) and laying.

My thought is to give the queenless colony the frame with QCs on it (reduced to 2) and add a foundationed frame to the colony that's making swarm preparations in the hope that that will give them something to do in drawing it out and take their collective mind off swarming, plus they will have lost their queen cells.

Does that sound like a plan or not a good idea?

CVB

[D]The weather's been dire. My girls normally get jiggy immediately but I have had some delays of that order; I'd give the Q- one a bit more time; being wrong causes no end of grief.[/D]. Sorry: ignore that. 22 May is too long. AS and test frame.

 

[MerryBee]

In my opinion transferring a frame with a sealed QC will be better than raising a queen in your Q- colony from a test frame. All the bees in your Q- colony are now quite old (last eggs seen 22 May) and so are not ideal for giving a developing queen larva adequate nutrition. If the colony that you believe is Q-, does have a queen running around in there after all, which seems unlikely after all this time, the donated queen cell will be torn down by the bees with no harm done.

As stated by others you do first need to do AS or some other form of swarm control in your other colony to separate the queen from the queen cells. You didnt say if there is more than 1 frame with a QC. If there is, I would wait till you have sealed QCs then transfer one on its frame to the Q- colony.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Well I bit the bullet and put a test frame in the White hive and found that all three were now empty in the Red hive - either I did not look carefully enough into the bottom of the cells, which were 15 mm long (today the sun was shining and I was able to get a good look inside - empty - doh! lesson learned! ) or they emptied them (unlikely, I think). How long before I inspect the test frame for queen cells?

They seemed to me to have had swarming on their mind with the large empty queen cells so I did a split into a nuc to try to reduce the urge. They had 9 frames of brood so the empty comb and foundation will give the queen and workers something to keep them busy.

CVB

 

[charlievictorbravo]

In my opinion transferring a frame with a sealed QC will be better than raising a queen in your Q- colony from a test frame. All the bees in your Q- colony are now quite old (last eggs seen 22 May) and so are not ideal for giving a developing queen larva adequate nutrition. If the colony that you believe is Q-, does have a queen running around in there after all, which seems unlikely after all this time, the donated queen cell will be torn down by the bees with no harm done.

As stated by others you do first need to do AS or some other form of swarm control in your other colony to separate the queen from the queen cells. You didnt say if there is more than 1 frame with a QC. If there is, I would wait till you have sealed QCs then transfer one on its frame to the Q- colony.

If you read my latest post, you'll see I probably c*cked up yesterday's inspection and there were probably no eggs in the bottom of the queen cells (they were proper cells, not just play cups). However you're the only person who thought that it was a good idea to give the Q- colony a frame with a QC on it. Like you I thought that that might kill two birds with one stone but others disagreed and I was following the offered advice today when I found the empty cells today. I've now tried to recover the situation.

CVB

 

[sherwood]

An alternative approach may have been to carefully cut out one of the QCs from the donor hive and attached it to an existing frame in the apparently Q- hive. ie not putting all your eggs in one basket. I think in your case this is the approach I would have followed. Though I would still have been a little worried that the Q + colony might have swarmed on the sealing of the remaining QCs.

 

[Nige.Coll]

A little pointless now but you would have had more success making a nuc with a queen cell and some bees and then uniting that when she was laying with the q- hive.
Adding queen cells from another hive can so often result in it being taken down because it smells wrong. Protecting the queen cell with kitchen foil or a protector leaving the tip exposed works better than just sticking a queen cell in for future reference.