Extra queens...what do you do?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You could always ask a local farmer if you could move them on their land somewhere safe for a week or so then move them to their new site , as long as the farms a few mile away, maybe offer a jar of honey?

A week or so will make little difference, you have to wait for the hive 'memory' to go - until the old foragers die off

 

[Tremyfro]

Well that is a good idea...Johnny....didn't think of that. I may be able to arrange to move them further than the 3 mile rule....then move back.
JBM....I think there was some info I read a while ago about bee memory. It isn't as long as I previously thought. Even within a beelife....they forget...apparently.
I thought I could test the theory with the small nuc......

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I still wouldn't move them until three or four weeks had passed - no chance of fixing things once it's broke

 

[Finman]

JBM....I think there was some info I read a while ago about bee memory. It isn't as long as I previously thought. Even within a beelife....they forget...apparently.
I thought I could test the theory with the small nuc......

It is not theory. What ever you have read.

My experience is that bees memory is over 4 weeks. Perhaps life time.

I have seen it when I returned a hive to my cottage yard again. A cloud of bees appeared to the empty hive place and it told that hive's original site.

Once I took a laying queen from a mating nuc. It escaped from my fingers and returned to its orignal site inside raspberry busches. It had started to lay 4 weeks earlier.

Workers are as home bees 3 weeks and then they start to forage.
When you make a nuc into same yard, all over 3 days old workers return to the original hive. It is same in AS.
.

 

[steve56616]

Ive moved my hives a few times. Once to the next street where we moved to and then last year to my allotment. Each time was less than a mile and all I did was keep them in for 24 hrs then used twigs. Not had a problem at all with all 6 hives I moved

 

[jonnybeegood]

If a hive swarms in your apiary, & you catch the swarm, put it in a Nuc & put this in your apiary, would the bees return to the originsl hive or stay in the nuc with the queen? Or would shutting them in for a few days prevent this?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have caught two swarms in my apiary from my own hives. I put them both in a full size box and they stayed put.
There are tricks to making them stay put. QE under brood box or over the entrance for a couple of days (no longer in case you have a cast) often works as does putting in a frame of open brood from another hive.

One place they won't go is back to their original box. They might abscond entirely and disappear over the horizon.
They might just desert the nuc as being too small.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If a hive swarms in your apiary, & you catch the swarm, put it in a Nuc & put this in your apiary, would the ---s return to the originsl hive or stay in the nuc with the queen?

Swarms are a different matter - they seem to forget the hive they 'abandoned' almost immediately

 

[jonnybeegood]

Swarms are a different matter - they seem to forget the hive they 'abandoned' almost immediately

Yes i found this with my swarm i captured, i havent seen anywhere why this happens, is it because they know they are with the original queen so stay with her?

 

[Tremyfro]

Well...let's hope that my hive think they have swarmed and woken up in a beautiful new Apiary Yard....the views are superb.....their very own garden...and want to stay there.
I have locked them up tonight with lots of food.....I have promised them a land of flowers and nectar....

 

[Finman]

, is it because they know they are with the original queen so stay with her?

When you clip the queen and it is not able to follow the swarm, bees do not follow the queen. Queen must follow swarm. Swarm return to their home and wait that they get a new queen. Then they swarm again.

Queen is not a learder of a swarm.

When a swarm returns to home and I have done an AS, it will not work, because bees have forgot the old hive. When I move the hive 10 feet with returned bees, bees do not move to the original site. They will stay in the moved hive and continue swarming procedures.

 

[Tremyfro]

I don't want to clip the queen...I can't anyway as it is too cold yet to go into the hives here.
As I understand it....it is the foraging bees which may return to the original site. The queen and nurse bees stay with the brood.
If the foragers do return to the old site...they will still find a hive there...they can go in and I will return them after dark to the new hive place. Once they have died off then the new foragers will be established in the new location. ...ta Daaa
....I hope.
Atm it is all conjecture ...I thought I had shut them in securely last night. I can now tell you that the entrance excluder on the MB poly doesn't stop them escaping. Plan B is to use a strip of foam....but have to get some of that.

 

[Finman]

As I understand it....it is the foraging bees which may return to the original site. The queen and nurse bees stay with the brood.
.

No....

About 3 days old bees make orientation flight. And like the name says, they orientate where they live and fly to home after leaving home.

Foragers are over 3 weeks old bees.

If the queen is a virgin, it has orientated its home too. You cannot move mating hives every day.

 

[Tremyfro]

The queen is in her 3rd season this year. So she won't be leaving the hive. She was laying last year brilliantly .....there are lots of bees in the colony already so she must be laying well so far. I have to move them....no choice.... A Tarmac drive is going through where they are presently.....I need to move them before the contractors arrive. The new Bee Yard will be about 200 metres away. We can walk the foragers back each night until they have died off but I am hoping that they will orientate to the new place after being shut in and then having to negotiate heavy foliage at the entrance.

 

[Finman]

.
Sel the hives and buy new hives to the new site.

 

[Anduril]

Yes i found this with my swarm i captured, i havent seen anywhere why this happens, is it because they know they are with the original queen so stay with her?

Honeybee Democracy by Tom Sealey will answer your questions.

 

[itma]

The queen is in her 3rd season this year. So she won't be leaving the hive. She was laying last year brilliantly ...

Watch carefully for swarm preparations.
The older (and more prolific) the Q, the earlier they will go into swarm mode.
And if they do swarm, its the old girl that DOES leave the hive ...

 

[Tremyfro]

As soon as it is warm enough...I will be checking the colony for any swarming ideas. Thanks for the reminder Itma. The air is still cold here on our hill. The daffs are just beginning to come out. In the valley they are a riot of colour!

 

[Tremyfro]

I can't possibly sell my hives....I spent hours painting them... Pale green, pale blue cream and the most beautiful pale pink......no hives must stay. I am also very fond of my girls. I am sure we will manage somehow.....