Emergency Queen Buying?

[The Gardener]

Hi,

I placed an unsealed queen cell in a nuc with two other frames of brood and two frames of bees shaken in. I read this is one of the alternative methods of artificial swarming.

After 12 days, the queen has not emerged and there is at least one other queen cup being built. I can't imagine this queen cup being succesful, so unless the queen emerges in a couple of days, I have a queenless nuc.

Do I panic and buy in a new queen?

Thanks all

 

[REDWOOD]

Queens emerge after 16 days....ish, I would wait until then

 

[oliver90owner]

A couple of things.

Nothing to do with artificial swarming.

Two or three frames with a couple of frames of bees shaken in was likely insufficient to service all the brood.

To your method of establishing a colony. Perfectly adequate but needs a lot of bees. You don't give much indication of the origin and position of the hive wrt the donor colony. If close by, all the flying bees may have departed to their former home.

Not knowing how old the larva was 12 days ago might mean it is yet to emerge - needs 8 days, typically, for pupation but that could be a little longer if too cool. Probably not too good a situation for a good queen with longevity.

New queen cups will not be successful as there are no eggs to develop.

I have my doubts as to whether that cell is viable, but I would suggest that buying in a queen may not be any better, if there are too few bees in there. I just don't know. They may be more akin to a mini nuc size than a 5 (or more) frame nuc (and possibly in timber, which will not be as cosy as poly at this time of the year).

 

[The Gardener]

Thanks all,

think I'll wait a few more days before doing anything else.

They're in a six frame poly nuc at the moment, which is heaving with bees.

Do I have any other options other than re-queening? Could I re-unite a queenless colony with another hive?

Cheers

 

[drstitson]

Do I have any other options other than re-queening? Could I re-unite a queenless colony with another hive?


you could unite Or give them a frame of eggs

 

[oliver90owner]

Ahh, now you are telling us there were three frames of brood and two were emerging brood? And with bees adhered? Plus two more frames of bees shaken in? Polynuc - important. What were the other three frames? Once we have the information, the picture becomes clearer.

Next you will be telling us it is a 14 x12?

I now notice that you may have other colonies, so this was not just from another new beek down the road.

If the nuc is 'heaving' with bees, you could add another well developed queen cell or you could buy in.

What is clear now, is that there was never any panic. Maintaining some open brood in the nuc will avoid the risk of laying workers.

'Panic', 'emergency' and reference to A/S made me think you were an absolute beginner.

 

[user 6228]

A couple of things.
...

I have my doubts as to whether that cell is viable, but I would suggest that buying in a queen may not be any better, if there are too few bees in there. I just don't know. They may be more akin to a mini nuc size than a 5 (or more) frame nuc (and possibly in timber, which will not be as cosy as poly at this time of the year).

To emphasise the above the amount of bees needed to sustain as colony does appear to be very dependent on the amount of insulation/ heat loss.