Dilemma?

[mocko]

Hi All,

It's been a few weeks since two of my colonies on double brood had been artificially swarmed, Q cells have all hatched out and even had a cast swarm last week. Upon inspection yesterday, there were no visible queens or eggs in the hive....

I have two nucleuses doing very well and are headed by 2012 queens which have mated well. Can I combine them into the hives not knowing if a queen is present or should I wait longer? Someone suggested a frame of eggs but don't want to try and risk another mating failure - suppose it might give me a clue if the hive is queenless or not. Other alternative is to sell the NUC's and buy some new mated queens instead.

Thanks

Andy

 

[aberreef]

Personally I'd go with a test frame. I had a similar issue last year and put a test frame in. The bees didn't make any QCs but the virgin started laying a week or so later.

If they make QCs then you know they are Q-. At that point you can pull down all the QCs and combine with a nuc

No doubt someone will disagree though

 

[mocko]

I think that's a good idea! I will test frame them today. How would I combine a NUC with a double brood box with 2 supers on top?

Thanks

A

 

[aberreef]

There's a similar question on another thread here somewhere, I'll do a link if I come across it. The advice given was to put the nuc into a full size BB and then combine the Q- hive on top of it, seperating the 2 with newspaper that has some holes pierced in it.

Make sure there are absolutely no QCs left before combining or you'd risk a swarm I think