Dead Queen

[planbee]

I've been to carry out my weekly examination of a hive this morning, a bit early, because I'm going to be a bit "tucked up" next week, and I've found the queen laying on the floor of the hive, dead.

Not sure when this happened, I last saw her late on Sunday afternoon.

I thought the bee's were a bit tetchy when I started today - not like them, at all.

Unsure of what to do next, I've closed everything up, and come home.

I have two recently started nucs, adjacent to the hive, each with 3 frames populated.

My plan is, either to combine them, [do I dust both nuc populations with icing sugar?], and introduce the spare queen to the hive, or leave the hive to raise an emergency queen?

I have a plastic introduction cage, but don't know how to make the candy that it originally contained.

Soonest that I can get down there again, is tomorrow, after midday - your advice please, ladies and gents.

John

 

[jon]

Have the recently started nucs got a mated queen in them?

 

[planbee]

Yes, there is a 2008 in one, and a 2009 in the second.

 

[sputnam]

Personally, I would leave them to it. As long as they have eggs or young larvae and food, they will produce a new queen. I you don't like her offspring, then you have plenty of time still this year to bump her off & use one from a nuc.

 

[VEG]

You can use marshmallow instead of fondant for the queen cage.

 

[planbee]

OK, that's decided, then.

I'll leave them to their own devices, and see how they get on.

And thanks for the advice about the Marshmallows, by the way, that's a very convenient way of getting a small amount of stuff for the job; and the little lad next door will get the surplus, no doubt, because I'm a diabetic!

John