Casts

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paulz

New Bee
Joined
May 15, 2012
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Location
Notts
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
I have collected a cast. I went to hive them in hive one but noticed bees already coming and going out. Hence two casts.
I am thinking, because the queens are both virgins as to re-queening one and using eggs to bolster other until other queen gets going.
What do other people think?
Many Thanks
Paul
 
If you've got a box to put them I'd keep them separate until both queens are mated and laying, then you can choose to keep the best one.
 
Thanks but what about

If I wait until they both start laying that will be several weeks before the new brood starts to emerge and the colony starts to build up. This way brood rearing starts as soon as the queen is introduced.
Paul
 
Bees will teach you patience. There are no short cuts.
But remember that the bees themselves have no patience whatsoever.


The rate of brood rearing is usually limited by the amount of beepower available to keep the brood warm.

If you managed to find and remove a virgin and successfully introduce a mated queen to one group (note that is two big 'if's there), then that group might only be a single week ahead of the virgin-led group. Princesses mate earlier in small colonies - one reason for Apideas!


Better to keep them apart until you know what you have got (and that they are healthy). Or else combine asap and put all your eggs in one basket and bees in one hive - I'd only recommend that if either was really pathetically small (a double handful or less).

However, a full hive is much too big for a small colony - one function of nuc hives! A simpler option would be to use dummy boards to restrict their scope. Warmth is important, so insulate above (though a polynuc would be even better) - and after a couple of days feed all they can take for a week or so.
 
Attempts to bolster with brood or eggs before your virgin is up and running would possibly delay the happy event. The greater imperative to become mated comes from necessity. If you remove that necessity then there is no great imperative to become mated.

Re-queening is likely to be expensive with little gain as Itma has pointed out and at worst could prove to be an expensive failure.

Once up an laying, find a frame of emerging workers, shake off the bees and donate that. The newly emerging bees will bolster the numbers and provide the ladypower necessary to assist their build up.

Light feeding may also be beneficial.
 

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