Dilemma

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beesrus

New Bee
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
63
Reaction score
0
Location
Stockport
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2 Main, 3 Nucs
I recently lost a swarm from one of my hives and that particular hive has struggled to raise a queen, correction, they raised queens fine but somehow they seemed to die or be killed/eaten, I can only assume by birds etc.

I thought to remove a frame of brood, stores and bees from my other hive (which is very strong) and placed them in a nuc box. I moved them a sufficient distance away and left them to it for a week. What I was hoping to see today was at least a capped queen cell but what I actually found was a reduced population, no queens, cups or cells and some sealed brood!!!

Have I done something wrong here because from what I have read I thought the workers would try and raise a new queen but this is not happening?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I feel buying a new queen is my only hope.

Thanks

Marc
 
did you place the 'test frame' in a nuc on it's own, or did you put the frame into your 'queenless' hive?
a little more info would be great!!
 
Hi,
Yes i put the test frame in the nuc with some store and a frames worth of bees.
Thanks
 
So was it one frame on its own, with the bees covering it, placed in an otherwise empty hive, with this 'new hive' being located within 3 miles of your donor hive?
 
No, 2 frames - one with open brood and some sealed brood and the other with sealed brood one side and stores the other. I then brushed another frame's worth of bees into the nuc box with 3 empty frames and closed the lid. I took this to another site over 3 miles away.

Thanks
 
Should have been ok. Try it again and make sure you have eggs on the frame you remove, uncap the stores with an uncapping fork and keep the entrance hole to an absolute minimum.
 
Thanks - thats what i thought really cant understand it.

Will give it another try.

Thanks
 
thought to remove a frame of brood, stores and bees from my other hive (which is very strong) and placed them in a nuc box. I moved them a sufficient distance away and left them to it for a week. What I was hoping to see today was at least a capped queen cell but what I actually found was a reduced population, no queens, cups or cells and some sealed brood!!!

Sound like there were no eggs on the frame. They have to have eggs or just hatched larvae to be able to raise a queen, otherwise you'll get exactly what you got, sealed brood.
 
That's just it, their were eggs and larvae as we put our strong hive on double brood, this was freshly drawn comb and lots of tiny eggs through to 3-4 day old larvae. I then took a frame with sealed brood on one side and stores on the other from the first brood box and added that to the nuc.

Being new to beekeeping i could be completely wrong here but i thought i did it propoerly.

Confusing stuff.
 

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